System and method for acoustic touch and force sensing

ABSTRACT

Acoustic touch and/or force sensing system architectures and methods for acoustic touch and/or force sensing can be used to detect a position of an object touching a surface and an amount of force applied to the surface by the object. The position and/or an applied force can be determined using time-of-flight (TOF) techniques, for example. Acoustic touch sensing can utilize transducers (e.g., piezoelectric) to simultaneously transmit ultrasonic waves along a surface and through a thickness of a deformable material. The location of the object and the applied force can be determined based on the amount of time elapsing between the transmission of the waves and receipt of the reflected waves. In some examples, an acoustic touch sensing system can be insensitive to water contact on the device surface, and thus acoustic touch sensing can be used for touch sensing in devices that may become wet or fully submerged in water.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/989,063 (published as U.S. Publication No. 2018-0341359), filed onMay 24, 2018, which claims benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.62/510,460, filed on May 24, 2017, U.S. Provisional Application No.62/510,489, filed on May 24, 2017, and U.S. Provisional Application62/510,416, filed May 24, 2017, which are hereby incorporated byreference in their entireties for all purposes.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

This relates generally to touch and/or force sensing systems, and moreparticularly, to integrated acoustic touch and force sensing systems andmethods for acoustic touch and force sensing.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

Many types of input devices are presently available for performingoperations in a computing system, such as buttons or keys, mice,trackballs, joysticks, touch sensor panels, touch screens and the like.Touch screens, in particular, are becoming increasingly popular becauseof their ease and versatility of operation as well as their decliningprice. Touch screens can include a touch sensor panel, which can be aclear panel with a touch-sensitive surface, and a display device such asa liquid crystal display (LCD) that can be positioned partially or fullybehind the panel so that the touch-sensitive surface can cover at leasta portion of the viewable area of the display device. Touch screens canallow a user to perform various functions by touching the touch sensorpanel using a finger, stylus or other object at a location oftendictated by a user interface (UI) being displayed by the display device.In general, touch screens can recognize a touch and the position of thetouch on the touch sensor panel, and the computing system can theninterpret the touch in accordance with the display appearing at the timeof the touch, and thereafter can perform one or more actions based onthe touch. In the case of some touch sensing systems, a physical touchon the display is not needed to detect a touch. For example, in somecapacitive-type touch sensing systems, fringing electrical fields usedto detect touch can extend beyond the surface of the display, andobjects approaching near the surface may be detected near the surfacewithout actually touching the surface. Capacitive-type touch sensingsystems, however, can experience reduced performance due to conductive,electrically-floating objects (e.g., water droplets) in contact with thetouch-sensitive surface.

SUMMARY

This relates to acoustic touch and/or force sensing systems and methodsfor acoustic touch and/or force sensing. The position of an objecttouching a surface can be determined using time-of-flight (TOF)techniques, for example. Acoustic touch and/or force sensing can utilizetransducers, such as piezoelectric transducers, to transmit ultrasonicwaves along a surface and/or through the thickness of one or morematerials (e.g., a thickness of an electronic device housing). As thewave propagates along the surface and/or through the thickness of theone or more materials, an object (e.g., finger, stylus, etc.) in contactwith the surface can interact with the transmitted wave, causing areflection of at least a portion of the transmitted wave. Portions ofthe transmitted wave energy after interaction with the object can bemeasured to determine the touch location of the object on the surface ofthe device. For example, one or more transducers (e.g., acoustictransducers) coupled to a surface of a device can be configured totransmit an acoustic wave along the surface and/or through the thicknessof the one or more materials and can receive a portion of the wavereflected back when the acoustic wave encounters a finger or otherobject touching the surface. The location of the object can bedetermined, for example, based on the amount of time elapsing betweenthe transmission of the wave and the detection of the reflected wave.Acoustic touch sensing can be used instead of, or in conjunction with,other touch sensing techniques, such as resistive, optical, and/orcapacitive touch sensing. In some examples, the acoustic touch sensingtechniques described herein can be used on a metal housing surface of adevice, which may be unsuitable for capacitive or resistive touchsensing due to interference (e.g., of the housing with the capacitive orresistive sensors housed in the metal housing). In some examples, theacoustic touch sensing techniques described herein can be used on aglass surface of a display or touch screen. In some examples, anacoustic touch sensing system can be configured to be insensitive tocontact on the device surface by water, and thus acoustic touch sensingcan be used for touch sensing in devices that may become wet or fullysubmerged in water.

Additionally or alternatively, a force applied by the object on thesurface can also be determined using TOF techniques. For example, one ormore transducers can transmit ultrasonic waves through the thickness ofa deformable material, and reflected waves from the opposite edge of thedeformable material can be measured to determine a TOF or a change inTOF. The TOF, or change in TOF (ATOF), can correspond to the thicknessof the deformable material (or changes in thickness) due to forceapplied to the surface. Thus, the TOF or change in TOF (or the thicknessor change in thickness) can be used to determine the applied force. Insome examples, using acoustic touch and force sensing can reduce thecomplexity of the touch and force sensing system by reducing the sensinghardware requirements (e.g., transducers, sensing circuitry/controllers,etc. can be integrated/shared).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1A-1G illustrate exemplary systems with touch screens that caninclude acoustic sensors for detecting contact between an object and asurface of the system according to examples of the disclosure.

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary block diagram of an electronic deviceincluding an acoustic touch and/or force sensing system according toexamples of the disclosure.

FIG. 3A illustrates an exemplary process for acoustic touch and/or forcesensing of an object in contact with a touch and/or force sensitivesurface according to examples of the disclosure.

FIG. 3B illustrates an exemplary system, which can perform an exemplaryprocess for acoustic touch and/or force sensing of an object in contactwith a touch and/or force sensitive surface, according to examples ofthe disclosure.

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary configuration of an acoustic touchand/or force sensing circuit according to examples of the disclosure.

FIGS. 5A-5C illustrate exemplary system configurations and timingdiagrams for acoustic touch sensing to determine position usingtime-of-flight measurements according to examples of the disclosure.

FIGS. 6A-6D illustrate exemplary system configurations and timingdiagrams for acoustic force sensing to determine an amount of appliedforce using a time-of-flight measurement according to examples of thedisclosure.

FIG. 7 illustrates a timing diagram for acoustic touch and force sensingaccording to examples of the disclosure.

FIGS. 8A-C illustrate exemplary circuits for force detection accordingto examples of the disclosure.

FIG. 9 illustrates an exemplary configuration of an acoustic touchand/or force sensing circuit according to examples of the disclosure.

FIGS. 10A-10E illustrate exemplary integration of an acoustic touch andforce sensing circuit and/or one or more processors with transducersmechanically and acoustically coupled to a surface and/or a deformablematerial according to examples of the disclosure.

FIG. 11 illustrates an exemplary configuration of an acoustic touch andforce sensing circuit according to examples of the disclosure.

FIGS. 12A-12E illustrate exemplary integration of an acoustic touch andforce sensing circuit and/or one or more processors with groups oftransducers mechanically and acoustically coupled to a surface and/or adeformable material according to examples of the disclosure.

FIG. 13 illustrates a first exemplary configuration for integratingtouch sensing and force sensing circuitry with a housing and cover glassof an electronic device.

FIG. 14 illustrates a second exemplary configuration for integratingtouch sensing and force sensing circuitry with a housing and cover glassof an electronic device.

FIG. 15 illustrates a third exemplary configuration for integratingtouch sensing and force sensing circuitry with a housing and cover glassof an electronic device.

FIG. 16 illustrates a variation of the third configuration of FIG. 10with the addition of an encapsulant material.

FIG. 17 illustrates a fourth exemplary configuration for integratingtouch sensing and force sensing circuitry with a housing and cover glassof an electronic device.

FIG. 18 illustrates a fifth exemplary configuration for integratingtouch sensing and force sensing circuitry with a housing and cover glassof an electronic device.

FIGS. 19A and 19B illustrate exemplary configurations for integratingtouch sensing and force sensing circuitry with shared elements with ahousing and cover glass of an electronic device.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description of various examples, reference is made tothe accompanying drawings which form a part hereof, and in which it isshown by way of illustration specific examples that can be practiced. Itis to be understood that other examples can be used and structuralchanges can be made without departing from the scope of the variousexamples.

This relates to acoustic touch and/or force sensing systems and methodsfor acoustic touch and/or force sensing. The position of an objecttouching a surface can be determined using time-of-flight (TOF)techniques, for example. Acoustic touch and/or force sensing can utilizetransducers, such as piezoelectric transducers, to transmit ultrasonicwaves along a surface and/or through the thickness of one or morematerials (e.g., a thickness of an electronic device housing). As thewave propagates along the surface and/or through the thickness of theone or more materials, an object (e.g., finger, stylus, etc.) in contactwith the surface can interact with the transmitted wave, causing areflection of at least a portion of the transmitted wave. Portions ofthe transmitted wave energy after interaction with the object can bemeasured to determine the touch location of the object on the surface ofthe device. For example, one or more transducers (e.g., acoustictransducers) coupled to a surface of a device can be configured totransmit an acoustic wave along the surface and/or through the thicknessof the one or more materials and can receive a portion of the wavereflected back when the acoustic wave encounters a finger or otherobject touching the surface. The location of the object can bedetermined, for example, based on the amount of time elapsing betweenthe transmission of the wave and the detection of the reflected wave.Acoustic touch sensing can be used instead of, or in conjunction with,other touch sensing techniques, such as resistive, optical, and/orcapacitive touch sensing. In some examples, the acoustic touch sensingtechniques described herein can be used on a metal housing surface of adevice, which may be unsuitable for capacitive or resistive touchsensing due to interference (e.g., of the housing with the capacitive orresistive sensors housed in the metal housing). In some examples, theacoustic touch sensing techniques described herein can be used on aglass surface of a display or touch screen. In some examples, anacoustic touch sensing system can be configured to be insensitive tocontact on the device surface by water, and thus acoustic touch sensingcan be used for touch sensing in devices that may become wet or fullysubmerged in water.

Additionally or alternatively, a force applied by the object on thesurface can also be determined using TOF techniques. For example, one ormore transducers can transmit ultrasonic waves through the thickness ofa deformable material, and reflected waves from the opposite edge of thedeformable material can be measured to determine a TOF or a change inTOF. The TOF, or change in TOF (ATOF), can correspond to the thicknessof the deformable material (or changes in thickness) due to forceapplied to the surface. Thus, the TOF or change in TOF (or the thicknessor change in thickness) can be used to determine the applied force. Insome examples, using acoustic touch and force sensing can reduce thecomplexity of the touch and force sensing system by reducing the sensinghardware requirements (e.g., transducers, sensing circuitry/controllers,etc. can be integrated/shared).

FIGS. 1A-1G illustrate exemplary systems with touch screens that caninclude acoustic sensors for detecting contact between an object (e.g.,a finger or stylus) and a surface of the system according to examples ofthe disclosure. Detecting contact can include detecting a location ofcontact and/or an amount of force applied to a touch-sensitive surface.FIG. 1A illustrates an exemplary mobile telephone 136 that includes atouch screen 124 and can include an acoustic touch and/or force sensingsystem according to examples of the disclosure. FIG. 1B illustrates anexample digital media player 140 that includes a touch screen 126 andcan include an acoustic touch and/or force sensing system according toexamples of the disclosure. FIG. 1C illustrates an example personalcomputer 144 that includes a touch screen 128 and a track pad 146, andcan include an acoustic touch and/or force sensing system according toexamples of the disclosure. FIG. 1D illustrates an example tabletcomputing device 148 that includes a touch screen 130 and can include anacoustic touch and/or force sensing system according to examples of thedisclosure. FIG. 1E illustrates an example wearable device 150 (e.g., awatch) that includes a touch screen 152 and can include an acoustictouch and/or force sensing system according to examples of thedisclosure. Wearable device 150 can be coupled to a user via strap 154or any other suitable fastener. FIG. 1F illustrates another examplewearable device, over-ear headphones 160, that can include an acoustictouch and/or force sensing system according to examples of thedisclosure. FIG. 1G illustrates another example wearable device, in-earheadphones 170, that can include an acoustic touch and/or force sensingsystem according to examples of the disclosure. It should be understoodthat the example devices illustrated in FIGS. 1A-1G are provided by wayof example, and other types of devices can include an acoustic touchand/or force sensing system for detecting contact between an object anda surface of the device. Additionally, although the devices illustratedin FIGS. 1A-1E include touch screens, in some examples, the devices mayhave a non-touch-sensitive display (e.g., the devices illustrated inFIGS. 1F and 1G).

Acoustic sensors can be incorporated in the above described systems toadd acoustic touch and/or force sensing capabilities to a surface of thesystem. For example, in some examples, a touch screen (e.g., capacitive,resistive, etc.) can be augmented with acoustic sensors to provide atouch and/or force sensing capability for use in wet environments orunder conditions where the device may get wet (e.g., exercise, swimming,rain, washing hands) or for use with non-conductive orpartially-conductive touch objects (e.g., gloved or bandaged fingers) orpoorly grounded touch objects (e.g., objects not in contact with thesystem ground of the device). In some examples, an otherwise non-touchsensitive display screen can be augmented with acoustic sensors toprovide a touch and/or force sensing capability. In such examples, atouch screen can be implemented without the stack-up required for acapacitive touch screen. In some examples, the acoustic sensors can beused to provide touch and/or force sensing capability for a non-displaysurface. For example, the acoustic sensors can be used to provide touchand/or force sensing capabilities for a track pad (e.g., trackpad 146 ofpersonal computer 144), a button, a scroll wheel, part or all of thehousing or any other surfaces of the device (e.g., on the front, rear orsides). For example, acoustic sensors can be integrated into over-earheadphones 160 (e.g., in exterior circular region 162, interior circularregion 164, and/or over-head band 166) or in-ear headphones 170 (e.g.,in earbud 172 or protrusion 174) to provide touch and/or force input(e.g., single-touch or multi-touch gestures including tap, hold andswipe). The acoustic sensing surfaces for acoustic touch and/or forcesensing can be made of various materials (e.g., metal, plastic, glass,etc.) or a combination of materials.

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary block diagram of an electronic deviceincluding an acoustic touch and/or force sensing system according toexamples of the disclosure. In some examples, housing 202 of device 200(e.g., corresponding to devices 136, 140, 144, 148, and 150 above) canbe coupled (e.g., mechanically) with one or more acoustic transducers204. In some examples, transducers 204 can be piezoelectric transducers,which can be made to vibrate by the application of electrical signalswhen acting as a transmitter, and generate electrical signals based ondetected vibrations when acting as a receiver. In some examples,transducers 204 can be formed from a piezoelectric ceramic material(e.g., PZT or KNN) or a piezoelectric plastic material (e.g., PVDF orPLLA). Similarly, transducers 204 can produce electrical energy as anoutput when vibrated. In some examples, transducers 204 can be bonded tohousing 202 by a bonding agent (e.g., a thin layer of stiff epoxy). Insome examples, transducers 204 can be deposited on one or more surfaces(e.g., a cover glass of touch screen 208 and/or a deformable material asdescribed in more detail below) through processes such as deposition,lithography, or the like. In some examples, transducers 204 can bebonded to the one or more surfaces using electrically conductive ornon-conductive bonding materials. When electrical energy is applied totransducers 204 it can cause the transducers to vibrate, the one or moresurfaces in contact with the transducers can also be caused to vibrate,and the vibrations of the molecules of the surface material canpropagate as an acoustic wave through the one or moresurfaces/materials. In some examples, vibration of transducers 204 canbe used to produce ultrasonic acoustic waves at a selected frequencyover a broad frequency range (e.g., 500 kHz-10 MHz) in the medium of thesurface of the electronic device which can be metal, plastic, glass,wood, or the like. It should be understood that other frequenciesoutside of the exemplary range above can be used while remaining withinthe scope of the present disclosure.

In some examples, transducers 204 can be partially or completelydisposed on (or coupled to) a portion of a touch screen 208. Forexample, touch screen 208 (e.g., capacitive) may include a glass panel(cover glass) or a plastic cover, and a display region of the touchscreen may be surrounded by a non-display region (e.g., a black borderregion surrounding the periphery of the display region of touch screen208). In some examples, transducers 204 can be disposed partially orcompletely in the black mask region of touch screen 208 (e.g., on theback side of the glass panel behind the black mask) such that thetransducers are not visible (or are only partially visible) to a user.In some examples, transducers 204 can be partially or completelydisposed on (or coupled to) a portion of a deformable material (notshown). In some examples, the deformable material can be disposedbetween touch screen 208 and a rigid material (e.g., a portion ofhousing 202). In some examples, the deformable material can be silicone,rubber or polyethylene. In some examples, the deformable material canalso be used for water sealing of the device.

Device 200 can further include acoustic touch and/or force sensingcircuitry 206, which can include circuitry for driving electricalsignals to stimulate vibration of transducers 204 (e.g., transmitcircuitry), as well as circuitry for sensing electrical signals outputby transducers 204 when the transducer is stimulated by receivedacoustic energy (e.g., receive circuitry). In some examples, timingoperations for acoustic touch and/or force sensing circuitry 206 canoptionally be provided by a separate acoustic touch and/or force sensingcontroller 210 that can control timing of and other operations byacoustic touch and/or force sensing circuitry 206. In some examples,touch and/or force sensing controller 210 can be coupled betweenacoustic touch and/or force sensing circuitry 206 and host processor214. In some examples, controller functions can be integrated withacoustic touch and/or force sensing circuitry 206 (e.g., on a singleintegrated circuit). In particular, examples integrating touch and forcesensing circuitry and controller functionality into a single integratedcircuit can reduce the number of transducers (sensor elements) andelectronic chipsets for a touch and force sensing device. Output datafrom acoustic touch and/or force sensing circuitry 206 can be output toa host processor 214 for further processing to determine a location ofand a force applied by an object contacting the device as will bedescribed in more detail below. In some examples, the processing fordetermining the location of and a force applied by the contacting objectcan be performed by acoustic touch and/or force sensing circuitry 206,acoustic touch and/or force sensing controller 210 or a separatesub-processor of device 200 (not shown).

In addition to acoustic touch and/or force sensing, device 200 caninclude additional touch circuitry 212 and optionally a touch controller(not shown) that can be coupled to the touch screen 208. In examplesincluding a touch controller, the touch controller can be disposedbetween touch circuitry 212 and host processor 214. Touch circuitry 212can, for example, be capacitive or resistive touch sensing circuitry,and can be used to detect contact and/or hovering of objects (e.g.,fingers, styli) in contact with and/or in proximity to touch screen 208,particularly in the display region of the touch screen. Thus, device 200can include multiple types of sensing circuitry (e.g., touch circuitry212 and acoustic touch and/or force sensing circuitry 206) for detectingobjects (and their positions and/or applied force) in different regionsof the device and/or for different purposes, as will be described inmore detail below. Although described herein as including a touchscreen, it should be understood that touch circuitry 212 can be omitted,and in some examples, touch screen 208 can be replaced by an otherwisenon-touch-sensitive display (e.g., but-for the acoustic sensors).

Host processor 214 can receive acoustic or other touch outputs (e.g.,capacitive) and/or force outputs and perform actions based on the touchoutputs and/or force outputs. Host processor 214 can also be connectedto program storage 216 and touch screen 208. Host processor 214 can, forexample, communicate with touch screen 208 to generate an image on touchscreen 208, such as an image of a user interface (UI), and can use touchsensing circuitry 212 and/or acoustic touch and/or force sensingcircuitry 206 (and, in some examples, their respective controllers) todetect a touch on or near touch screen 208 and/or an applied force, suchas a touch input and/or force input to the displayed UI. The touch inputand/or force input can be used by computer programs stored in programstorage 216 to perform actions that can include, but are not limited to,moving an object such as a cursor or pointer, scrolling or panning,adjusting control settings, opening a file or document, viewing a menu,making a selection, executing instructions, operating a peripheraldevice connected to the host device, answering a telephone call, placinga telephone call, terminating a telephone call, changing the volume oraudio settings, storing information related to telephone communicationssuch as addresses, frequently dialed numbers, received calls, missedcalls, logging onto a computer or a computer network, permittingauthorized individuals access to restricted areas of the computer orcomputer network, loading a user profile associated with a user'spreferred arrangement of the computer desktop, permitting access to webcontent, launching a particular program, encrypting or decoding amessage, and/or the like. Host processor 214 can also perform additionalfunctions that may not be related to touch and/or force processing.

Note that one or more of the functions described herein can be performedby firmware stored in memory and executed by touch circuitry 212 and/oracoustic touch and/or force sensing circuitry 206 (or their respectivecontrollers), or stored in program storage 216 and executed by hostprocessor 214. The firmware can also be stored and/or transported withinany non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for use by or inconnection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device,such as a computer-based system, processor-containing system, or othersystem that can fetch the instructions from the instruction executionsystem, apparatus, or device and execute the instructions. In thecontext of this document, a “non-transitory computer-readable storagemedium” can be any medium (excluding a signal) that can contain or storethe program for use by or in connection with the instruction executionsystem, apparatus, or device. The non-transitory computer readablemedium storage can include, but is not limited to, an electronic,magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system,apparatus or device, a portable computer diskette (magnetic), a randomaccess memory (RAM) (magnetic), a read-only memory (ROM) (magnetic), anerasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM) (magnetic), a portableoptical disc such a CD, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD, DVD-R, or DVD-RW, or flashmemory such as compact flash cards, secured digital cards, USB memorydevices, memory sticks, and the like.

The firmware can also be propagated within any transport medium for useby or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, ordevice, such as a computer-based system, processor-containing system, orother system that can fetch the instructions from the instructionexecution system, apparatus, or device and execute the instructions. Inthe context of this document, a “transport medium” can be any mediumthat can communicate, propagate or transport the program for use by orin connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, ordevice. The transport readable medium can include, but is not limitedto, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic or infrared wiredor wireless propagation medium.

It is to be understood that device 200 is not limited to the componentsand configuration of FIG. 2, but can include other or additionalcomponents in multiple configurations according to various examples.Additionally, the components of device 200 can be included within asingle device, or can be distributed between multiple devices.Additionally, it should be understood that the connections between thecomponents is exemplary and different unidirectional or bidirectionalconnections can be included between the components depending on theimplementation, irrespective of the arrows shown in the configuration ofFIG. 2.

FIG. 3A illustrates an exemplary process 300 for acoustic touch and/orforce sensing of an object in contact with a touch and/or forcesensitive surface according to examples of the disclosure. FIG. 3Billustrates an exemplary system 310, which can perform an exemplaryprocess 300 for acoustic touch and/or force sensing of an object incontact with a touch and/or force sensitive surface, according toexamples of the disclosure. At 302, acoustic energy can be transmitted(e.g., by one or more transducers 204) along a surface and/or throughthe thickness of a material in the form of an ultrasonic wave, forexample. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 3B, transducer 314 cangenerate a transmit ultrasonic wave 322 in cover glass 312 (or othermaterial capable of propagating an ultrasonic wave). In some examples,the wave can propagate as a compressive wave, a guided wave such as ashear horizontal wave, a Rayleigh wave, a Lamb wave, a Love wave, aStoneley wave, or a surface acoustic wave. Other propagation modes forthe transmitted acoustic energy can also exist based on the propertiesof the surface material, geometry and the manner of energy transmissionfrom the transducers to the surface of the device. In some examples, thesurface can be formed from glass, plastic, or sapphire crystal (e.g.,touch screen 208, cover glass 312) or the surface can be formed frommetal, ceramics, plastic, or wood (e.g., housing 202). Transmittedenergy can propagate along the surface (e.g., cover glass 312) and/orthrough the thickness until a discontinuity in the surface is reached(e.g., an object, such as a finger 320, in contact with the surface),which can cause a portion of the energy to reflect. In some examples, adiscontinuity can occur at edges (e.g., edge 330) of the surfacematerial (e.g., when the ultrasonic wave propagates to the edge of thesurface opposite the transducer). When the transmitted energy reachesone of the discontinuities described above, some of the energy can bereflected, and a portion of the reflected energy (e.g., object-reflectedwave 326, edge-reflected wave 328) can be directed to one or moretransducers (e.g., transducers 204, 314). In some examples, water orother fluids in contact with the surface of the device (e.g., device200) will not act as a discontinuity to the acoustic waves, and thus theacoustic touch sensing process can be effective for detecting thepresence of an object (e.g., a user's finger) even in the presence ofwater drops (or other low-viscosity fluids) on the surface of the deviceor even while the device is fully submerged.

At 304, returning acoustic energy can be received, and the acousticenergy can be converted to an electrical signal by one or moretransducers (e.g., transducers 204). For example, as illustrated in FIG.3B, object-reflected wave 326 and edge-reflected wave 328 can bereceived by transducer 314 and converted into an electrical signal.

At 306, the acoustic sensing system can determine whether one or moreobjects is contacting the surface of the device, and can further detectthe position of one or more objects based on the received acousticenergy. In some examples, a distance of the object from the transmissionsource (e.g., transducers 204) can be determined from a time-of-flightbetween transmission and reception of reflected energy, and apropagation rate of the ultrasonic wave through the material. In someexamples, baseline reflected energy from one or more intentionallyincluded discontinuities (e.g., edges) can be compared to a measuredvalue of reflected energy corresponding to the one or morediscontinuities. The baseline reflected energy can be determined duringa measurement when no object (e.g., finger) is in contact with thesurface. Deviations of the reflected energy from the baseline can becorrelated with a presence of an object touching the surface.

Although process 300, as described above, generally refers to reflectedwaves received by the same transducer(s) that transmitted the waves, insome examples, the transmitter and receiver functions can be separatedsuch that the transmission of acoustic energy at 302 and receivingacoustic energy at 304 may occur at different co-located transducers(e.g., one transducer in a transmit configuration and one transducer ina receive configuration). In some examples, the acoustic energy can betransmitted along and/or through the surface (e.g., cover glass 312) byone or more transducers (e.g., transducer 314) and received on anopposite edge (e.g., edge 330) of the surface by one or more additionaltransducers (not shown). The attenuation of the received acoustic energycan be used to detect the presence of and/or identify the position ofone or more objects (e.g., finger 320) on the surface (e.g., cover glass312). Exemplary device configurations and measurement timing examplesthat can be used to implement process 300 will be described in furtherdetail below. In some examples, the transmitted acoustic energy fromtransducer 314 can be received at the transmitting transducer and alsoreceived at one or more other non-transmitting transducers located indifferent positions (e.g., at different edges of the surface (e.g.,cover glass 312). Energy can reflect from one or more objects atmultiple angles, and the energy received at all of the receivingtransducers can be used to determine the position of the one or moreobjects. In some examples, the non-transmitting transducers can be freeof artifacts that can be associated with transmitting acoustic energy(e.g., ringing). In some examples, the energy can be received at twotransducers perpendicular to the transmitting transistor.

In some examples, the acoustic energy transmitted and received through adeformable material can be used to determine changes in the thickness ofthe deformable material and/or an applied force. For example, at 302,acoustic energy can be transmitted (e.g., by transducer 314) through thethickness of deformable material 316 in the form of a transmitultrasonic wave 324. Transmitted energy can propagate through thedeformable material 316 until it reaches a discontinuity at the rigidmaterial 318 (e.g., at the opposite edge of the deformable material316). When the transmitted energy reaches the discontinuity, some of theenergy can be reflected, and a portion of the reflected energy can bedirected back to transducer 314. At 304, returning acoustic energy canbe received, and the acoustic energy can be converted to an electricalsignal by transducers 314. At 306, the acoustic sensing system candetermine an amount of force applied by one or more objects contactingthe surface (e.g., cover glass 312) based on the received acousticenergy. In some examples, a thickness of deformable material 316 can bedetermined from a time-of-flight between transmission and reception ofreflected energy, and a propagation rate of the ultrasonic wave throughthe material. Changes in the thickness of the deformable material (orthe time-of-flight through the deformable material) can be used todetermine an amount of applied force, as described in more detail below.

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary configuration of an acoustic touchand/or force sensing circuit 400 according to examples of thedisclosure. Acoustic touch and/or force sensing circuit 400 can includetransmit circuitry (also referred to herein as Tx circuitry ortransmitter) 402, switching circuitry 404, receive circuitry (alsoreferred to herein as Rx circuitry or receiver) 408 and input/output(I/O) circuit 420 (which together can correspond to acoustic touchand/or force sensing circuitry 206) and acoustic scan control logic 422(which can correspond to acoustic touch and/or force sensing controller210). Transmitter 402, switching circuitry 404, receiver 408, I/Ocircuit 420 and/or acoustic scan control logic 422 can be implemented inan application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) in some examples. Insome examples, acoustic touch and/or force sensing circuit 400 can alsooptionally include transducers 406 (which can correspond to transducers204).

In some examples, a transmitter 402 can generate an electrical signalfor stimulating movement of one or more of a plurality of transducers406. In some examples, the transmitted signal can be a differentialsignal, and in some examples, the transmitted signal can be asingle-ended signal. In some examples, transmitter 402 can be a simplebuffer, and the transmitted signal can be a pulse (or burst of pulses ata particular frequency). In some examples, transmitter 402 can include adigital-to-analog converter (DAC) 402A and an optional filter 402B thatcan be optionally used to smooth a quantized output of DAC 402A. In someexamples, characteristics of the transducer itself can provide afiltering property and filter 402B can be omitted. DAC 402A can be usedto generate transmit waveform (e.g., any transmit waveform suitable forthe touch and/or force sensing operations discussed herein). In someexamples, the transmit waveform output can be pre-distorted to equalizethe channel. In some examples, the characteristics of each channel, suchas the properties of the surface material (and/or deformable material)coupled to transducers 406, the discontinuities in the surface materialand/or deformable material, and the reflection characteristics of anedge of the device or deformable material can be measured and stored. Insome examples, the channel characteristics can be measured as amanufacturing step (or factory calibration step), and in other examplesthe characteristics can be measured as a periodic calibration step(i.e., once a month, once a year, etc. depending on how quickly thechannel characteristics are expected to change). In some examples, thechannel characteristics can be converted to a transfer function of thechannel, and the transmit waveform can be configured using the inverseof the channel transfer function such that the returning signal isequalized (e.g., returning signal can be detected as a pulse or a burstof pulses despite the transmitted waveform having a seemingly arbitrarywaveform). In some examples, a single differential pulse can be used asa transmit waveform. For example, a bipolar square pulse (where thevoltage applied to the transducer can be both positive and negative) canbe used as the transmit waveform, and the bipolar square pulse can beimplemented using a single-ended or differential implementation. In someexamples, an energy recovery architecture can be used to recover some ofthe energy required for charging and discharging the transducer.

Switching circuitry 404 can include multiplexers (MUXs) and/ordemultiplexers (DEMUXs) that can be used to selectively coupletransmitter 402 and/or receiver 408 to one of transducers 406 that canbe the active transducer for a particular measurement step in ameasurement cycle. In a differential implementation, switching circuitry404 can include two MUXs and two DEMUXs. In some examples, a DEMUX canhave a ground connection, and the non-selected DEMUX outputs can beshorted, open, or grounded. In some examples, the same transducer 406can be coupled to transmitter 402 by switching circuitry 404 (e.g.,DEMUXs) during the drive mode and coupled to receiver 408 by switchingcircuitry 404 (e.g., MUXs) during the receive mode. Thus, in someexamples, a single transducer 406 can be used both for transmitting andreceiving acoustic energy. In some examples, a first transducer can becoupled to transmitter 402 by switching circuitry 404 (e.g. DEMUXs) anda second transducer can be coupled by switching circuitry 404 (e.g.,MUXs) to receiver 408. For example, the transmitting transducer and thereceiving transducer can be discrete piezoelectric elements, where thetransmitting transducer can be designed for being driven by highervoltages (or currents) to produce sufficient motion in transducer 406 togenerate an acoustic wave in the surface of a device (e.g., device 200above), and the receiving transducer can be designed for receivingsmaller amplitude reflected energy. In such a configuration, thetransmit-side circuitry (e.g., transmitter 402 and DEMUXs of switchingcircuitry 404) can be optionally implemented on a high voltage circuit,and the receive-side circuitry (e.g., receiver 408 and MUXs of switchingcircuitry 404) can be optionally implemented on a separate low voltagecircuit. In some examples, switching circuitry 404 (MUXs and DEMUXs) canalso be implemented on the high voltage circuit to properly isolate theremaining receive-side circuitry (e.g., receiver 408) duringtransmission operations by transmit side circuitry. Additionally oralternatively, in some examples, the transmit circuit can include anenergy recovery architecture that can be used to recover some of theenergy required for charging and discharging the transducer. It shouldbe understood that for a single-ended implementation, switchingcircuitry 404 can include a single DEMUX and MUX. In such aconfiguration, transmitter 402 and receiver 408 can be single-ended aswell. Differential implementations, however, can provide improved noisesuppression over a single-ended implementation.

Receiver 408 can include an amplifier 410 such as a low-noise amplifier(LNA) configured to sense the transducer. Receiver 408 can also includea gain and offset correction circuit 412. The gain and offset correctioncircuit can include a programmable gain amplifier (PGA) configured toapply gain to increase (or in some cases decrease) the amplitude of thesignals received from LNA. The PGA can also be configured to filter(e.g., low pass) the signals received from the LNA to remove highfrequency components. Additionally, the PGA circuit can also beconfigured to perform baselining (offset correction).

In some examples, the output of gain and offset correction circuit 412can optionally be coupled to one or more analog processing circuits. Insome examples, the output of gain and offset correction circuit 412 canbe coupled to a demodulation circuit 414 configured to demodulate thereceived signals (e.g., by I/Q demodulation). In some examples, theoutput of the gain and offset correction circuit 412 can be coupled toan envelope detection circuit 415 configured to perform envelopedetection on the received signals. In some examples, the output of gainand offset correction circuit 412 can be filtered at filter 416. In someexamples, these blocks/circuits can be placed in a different order. Insome examples, the processing of one or more of these analog processingcircuits can be performed in the digital domain.

The received signals, whether raw or processed by one or more ofdemodulation circuit 414, envelope detection circuit 415 or filter 416,can be passed to an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) 418 for conversionto a digital signal. In some examples, an input/output (I/O) circuit 420can be used to transmit received data for processing. In some examples,the output of I/O circuit 420 can be transferred to a host processor ofthe device, or to an auxiliary processor (sub-processor) separate fromthe host processor. For example, as illustrated, the output of I/Ocircuit 420 can be coupled to a processor system-on-chip (SoC) 430,which can include one or more processors. In some examples, processorSoC 430 can include a host processor 432 (e.g., an active modeprocessor) and an auxiliary processor 434 (e.g., a low power processor).In some examples, some digital signal processing can be performed (e.g.,by acoustic touch and/or force sensing circuit 400) before transmittingthe data to other processors in the system (e.g., processor SoC 430). Insome examples, the I/O circuit 420 is not only used for data transfer toprocessor SoC 430 (e.g., host processor 432), but also is used forwriting the control registers and/or firmware download from processorSoC 430.

The components of receiver circuitry 408 described above can beimplemented to detect touch (e.g., presence and location of a touch on asurface). In some examples, receiver 408 can also include a forcedetection circuit 424 to detect applied force (e.g., of the touch on thesurface). In some examples, the force detection circuit 424 can includethe same or similar components as described above (e.g., amplifier, gainand offset correction, etc.). In some examples, the function of forcedetection circuit 424 can be performed using the same componentsdescribed above that are used to determine time-of-flight for touchdetection. In some examples, a low-power time gating circuit can be usedto determine time-of-flight for force detection. Data from force sensingcircuit 424 can be transferred to I/O circuit 420 and/or processor SoC430 for further processing of force data in a similar manner asdescribed above for touch data. In some examples the same circuitry fortouch detection can be used to detect force.

A control circuit, acoustic scan control circuit 422, can be used tocontrol timing and operations of the circuitry of acoustic touch and/orforce sensing circuit 400. Acoustic scan control circuit 422 can beimplemented in hardware, firmware, software or a combination thereof. Insome examples, acoustic scan control circuit 422 can include digitallogic and timing control. Digital logic can provide the variouscomponents of acoustic touch and/or sensing circuit 400 with controlsignals. A timing control circuit can generate timing signals foracoustic touch and/or sensing circuit 400 and generally sequence theoperations of acoustic touch and/or force sensing circuit 400. In someexamples, the acoustic touch and/or force sensing circuit 400 canreceive a master clock signal from an external source (e.g., clock fromthe host processor, crystal oscillator, ring oscillator, RC oscillator,or other high-performance oscillator). In some examples, an on-chiposcillator can be used to generate the clock. In some examples, a masterclock signal can be generated by an on-chip phase locked loop (PLL),included as part of acoustic touch and/or force sensing circuit 400,using an external clock as the input. In some examples, a master clocksignal can be routed to the acoustic touch sensing circuit fromprocessor SoC 430. The appropriate master clock source can be determinedbased on a tradeoff between area, thickness of the stack-up, power andelectromagnetic interference.

It is to be understood that the configuration of FIG. 4 is not limitedto the components and configuration of FIG. 4, but can include other oradditional components (e.g., memory, signal processor, etc.) in multipleconfigurations according to various examples. Additionally, some or allof the components illustrated in FIG. 4 can be included in a singlecircuit, or can be divided among multiple circuits while remainingwithin the scope of the examples of the disclosure.

As described herein, various acoustic sensing techniques can be used todetermine the position of an object touching a surface and/or itsapplied force on the surface. In some examples, one or moretime-of-flight measurements can be performed using one or more acoustictransducers to determine boundaries of the position of the contactingobject. FIGS. 5A-5C illustrate exemplary system configurations andtiming diagrams for acoustic touch sensing to determine position usingtime-of-flight measurements according to examples of the disclosure.FIG. 5A illustrates an exemplary acoustic touch sensing systemconfiguration using four acoustic transducers 502A-D mounted along (orotherwise coupled to) four edges of a surface 500 (e.g., correspondingto cover glass 312). Transducers 502A-D can be configured to generateacoustic waves (e.g., shear horizontal waves) and to receive thereflected acoustic waves. Propagation of shear horizontal waves can beunaffected by water on surface 500 because low viscosity fluids andgases (such as water and air) have a very low shear modulus, andtherefore do not perturb the boundary conditions that affect wavepropagation. Shear horizontal waves can be highly directional waves suchthat the active detection region (or active area) 504 can be effectivelydefined based on the position and dimensions of the acoustic transducers502A-D. It should be understood, however, that active area can changebased on the directionality property of the acoustic waves and the sizeand placement of acoustic transducers 502A-D. Additionally, it should beunderstood that although illustrated as transmit and receive transducers(i.e., transceivers), in some examples, the transmit and receivefunctions can be divided (e.g., between two transducers in proximity toone another, rather than one transmit and receive transducer).

The position of a touch 506 from an object in contact with surface 500can be determined by calculating TOF measurements in a measurement cycleusing each of acoustic transducers 502A-D. For example, in a firstmeasurement step of the measurement cycle, acoustic transducer 502A cantransmit an acoustic wave and receive reflections from the acousticwave. When no object is present, the received reflection can be thereflection from the acoustic wave reaching the opposite edge of surface500. However, when an object is touching surface 500 (e.g.,corresponding to touch 506), a reflection corresponding to the objectcan be received before receiving the reflection from the opposite edge.Based on the received reflection corresponding to the object received attransducer 502A, the system can determine a distance to the edge (e.g.,leading edge) of touch 506, marked by boundary line 510A. Similarmeasurements can be performed by transducers 502B, 502C and 502D todetermine a distance to the remaining edges of touch 506, indicated byboundary lines 510B, 510C and 510D. Taken together, the measureddistances as represented by boundary lines 510A-510D can form a boundingbox 508. In some examples, based on the bounding box, the acoustic touchsensing system can determine the area of the touch (e.g., the area ofthe bounding box). Based on the bounding box, the acoustic touch sensingsystem can determine position of touch 506 (e.g., based on a centroidand/or area of the bounding box).

The acoustic touch sensing scan described with reference to FIG. 5A cancorrespond to the acoustic touch detection described above withreference to FIGS. 3A and 3B. Acoustic waves transmitted and receivedalong or through cover glass 312 can be used to determine theposition/location of an object touching the surface of cover glass 312.

FIG. 5B illustrates an exemplary timing diagram 560 for an acoustictouch sensing scan described in FIG. 5A according to examples of thedisclosure. As illustrated in FIG. 5B, each of the transducers cantransmit acoustic waves and then receive reflected waves in a series ofmeasurement steps. For example, from t0 to t1 a first transducer (e.g.,acoustic transducer 502A) can be stimulated, and reflections at thefirst transducer can be received from t1 to t2. From t2 to t3 a secondtransducer (e.g., acoustic transducer 502B) can be stimulated, andreflections at the second transducer can be received from t3 to t4. Fromt4 to t5 a third transducer (e.g., acoustic transducer 502C) can bestimulated, and reflections at the third transducer can be received fromt5 to t6. From t6 to t7 a fourth transducer (e.g., acoustic transducer502D) can be stimulated, and reflections at the fourth transducer can bereceived from t7 to t8. Although the transmit (Tx) and receive (Rx)functions are shown back-to-back in FIG. 5B for each transducer, in someexamples, gaps can be included between Tx and Rx functions for atransducer (e.g., to minimize capturing portions of the transmitted waveat the receiver), and or between the Tx/Rx functions of two differenttransducers (such that acoustic energy and the transients caused bymultiple reflections from a scan by one transducer does not impact ascan by a second transducer). In some examples, unused transducers canbe grounded (e.g., by multiplexers/demultiplexers in switching circuitry404).

The distance between an object touching the surface and a transducer canbe calculated based on TOF principles. The acoustic energy received bytransducers can be used to determine a timing parameter indicative of aleading edge of a touch. The propagation rate of the acoustic wavethrough the material forming the surface can be a known relationshipbetween distance and time. Taken together, the known relationshipbetween distance and time and the timing parameter can be used todetermine distance. FIG. 5C illustrates an exemplary timing diagramaccording to examples of the disclosure. FIG. 5C illustrates thetransducer energy output versus time. Signal 550 can correspond to theacoustic energy at the transducer from the generation of the acousticwave at a first edge of the surface. Signal 552 can correspond to theacoustic energy at the transducer received from the wave reflected offof a second edge opposite the first edge of the surface. Due to theknown distance across the surface from the first edge to the oppositesecond edge and the known or measured propagation rate of the acousticsignal, the reflection off of the opposite edge of the surface occurs ata known time. Additionally, one or more objects (e.g., fingers) touchingthe surface can cause reflections of energy in the time between thegeneration of the wave and the edge reflection (i.e., between signals550 and 552). For example, signals 554 and 556 can correspond toreflections of two objects touching the surface (or a leading andtrailing edge of one object). It should be understood that signals550-556 are exemplary and the actual shape of the energy received can bedifferent in practice.

In some examples, the timing parameter can be a moment in time that canbe derived from the reflected energy. For example, the time can refer tothat time at which a threshold amplitude of a packet of the reflectedenergy is detected. In some examples, rather than a threshold amplitude,a threshold energy of the packet of reflected energy can be detected,and the time can refer to that time at which a threshold energy of thepacket is detected. The threshold amplitude or threshold energy canindicate the leading edge of the object in contact with the surface. Insome examples, the timing parameter can be a time range rather than apoint in time. To improve the resolution of a TOF-based sensing scheme,the frequency of the ultrasonic wave and sampling rate of the receiverscan be increased (e.g., so that receipt of the reflected wave can belocalized to a narrower peak that can be more accurately correlated witha moment in time).

In some examples (e.g., as illustrated in FIG. 5B), transducers 502A-Dcan operate in a time multiplexed manner, such that each transducertransmits and receives an acoustic wave at a different time during ameasurement cycle so that the waves from one transducer do not interferewith waves from another transducer. In other examples, the transducerscan operate in parallel or partially in parallel in time. The signalsfrom the respective transducers can then be distinguished based ondifferent characteristics of the signals (e.g., different frequencies,phases and/or amplitudes).

Although four transducers are illustrated in FIG. 5A, in some examples,fewer transducers can be used. For example, when using an input objectwith known dimensions (e.g., stylus or a size-characterized finger), asfew as two transducers mounted along two perpendicular edges can beused. Based on the known dimensions of an object, a bounding box 518 canbe formed by adding the known dimensions of the object to the first andsecond distances, for example. Additionally, although FIG. 5Aillustrates detection of a single object (e.g., single touch), in someexamples, the acoustic touch sensing system can use more transducers andbe configured to detect multiple touches (e.g., by replacing each oftransducers 502A-D with multiple smaller transducers).

TOF schemes described with reference to FIGS. 5A-5C can provide fortouch sensing capability using a limited number of transducers (e.g., ascompared with a number of electrodes/touch nodes of a capacitive touchsensing system) which can simplify the transmitting and receivingelectronics, and can reduce time and memory requirements for processing.Although FIGS. 5A-5C discuss using a bounding box based on TOFmeasurements to determine position of an object, in other examples,different methods can be used, including applying matched filtering to aknown transmitted ultrasonic pulse shape, and using a center of masscalculation on the filtered output (e.g., instead of a centroid).

In some examples, a time-of-flight measurement can be performed usingone or more acoustic transducers to determine an amount of force appliedby an object touching a surface. FIGS. 6A-6D illustrate exemplary systemconfigurations and timing diagrams for acoustic force sensing todetermine an amount of applied force using a time-of-flight measurementaccording to examples of the disclosure. FIG. 6A illustrates anexemplary acoustic force sensing system stack-up 600 including adeformable material 604 in between two rigid surfaces. One of the rigidsurfaces can be a cover glass 601 (e.g., corresponding to cover glass312). The second of the rigid surfaces can be a portion of a devicehousing, for example (e.g., corresponding to housing 202). An acoustictransducer 602 (e.g., corresponding to transducer 314) can mounted to(or otherwise coupled to) the deformable material 604. For example, asillustrated in FIG. 6A, transducer 602 can be disposed between coverglass 601 and deformable material 604. Transducer 602 can be configuredto generate acoustic waves (e.g., shear horizontal waves) and to receivethe reflected acoustic waves from the discontinuity at the edge betweendeformable material 604 and rigid material 606. It should be understoodthat although illustrated as transmit and receive transducers (i.e.,transceivers), in some examples, the transmit and receive functions canbe divided (e.g., between two transducers in proximity to one another,rather than one transmit and receive transducer). Shear horizontal wavescan be highly directional waves such that the time of flight can beeffectively measure the thickness of the deformable material. A baselinethickness (or time-of-flight) can be determined for a no-forcecondition, such that changes in thickness (Δd) (or time-of-flight) canbe measured. Changes in thickness or time-of-flight can correspond toamount of applied force.

For example, plot 630 of FIG. 6D illustrates an exemplary relationshipbetween time-of-flight (or thickness) and applied force according toexamples of the disclosure. For example, in a steady state condition,where there is no change in time-of-flight across the deformablematerial 604, the applied force can be zero. As the time-of flightvaries (e.g., decreases), the applied force can vary as well (e.g.,increase). Plot 630 illustrates a linear relationship between TOF andforce, but in some examples, the relationship can be non-linear. Therelationship between TOF and applied force can be empirically determined(e.g., at calibration) using a correlation. In some examples, thecalibration can include linearizing the inferred applied force andnormalizing the measurements (e.g., removing gain and offset errors). Insome examples, the Young's modulus of the deformable material can beselected below a threshold to allow a small applied force to introduce adetectable normal deformation.

FIG. 6B illustrates another exemplary acoustic force sensing systemstack-up 610 including a deformable material 614 in between two rigidsurfaces (e.g., between cover glass 611 and rigid material 618). Anacoustic transducer 612 can mounted to (or otherwise coupled to) oneside of deformable material 614, and a second acoustic transducer 616can be mounted to (or otherwise coupled to) a second side (opposite thefirst side) of deformable material 614. For example, as illustrated inFIG. 6B, transducer 612 can be disposed between cover glass 611 anddeformable material 614 and transducer 616 can be disposed between rigidmaterial 618 and deformable material 614. Transducer 612 can beconfigured to generate acoustic waves (e.g., shear horizontal waves) andtransducer 616 can be configured to receive the acoustic waves. Theconfiguration of transducers in stack-up 610 can be referred to as a“pitch-catch” configuration in which one transducer on one side of amaterial transmits acoustic waves to a second transducer on an oppositeside, rather than relying on a reflected acoustic wave. Thetime-of-flight between the time of transmission and the time of receiptof the acoustic wave can be measured to determine the amount of appliedforce in a similar manner as discussed above with respect to FIG. 6D.

FIG. 6C illustrates an exemplary timing diagram 640 according toexamples of the disclosure. FIG. 6C illustrates the transducer energyoutput versus time. Signal 620 can correspond to the acoustic energy attransducer 602 from the generation of the acoustic wave at a first edgeof the deformable material 604. Signal 622 can correspond to theacoustic energy at transducer 602 received from a first wave reflectedoff of a second edge, opposite the first edge, of the deformablematerial 604. Due to the known distance across the surface from thefirst edge to the opposite, second edge (under steady-state) and theknown or measured propagation rate of the acoustic signal, thereflection off of the opposite edge of the surface occurs at a knowntime. In some examples, rather than using the first reflection, adifferent reflection of the acoustic energy can be used to determinetime of flight. For example, signal 624 can refer to the acoustic energyat transducer 602 received from a second wave reflected off of thesecond edge of deformable material 604 (e.g., signal 622 can reflect offof the first side of 604 deformable material and reflect a second timeoff of the second edge of deformable material 604). In some examples,signal 556 can correspond to an integer number reflection after repeatedreflections between the two edges of deformable material 604. It shouldbe understood that signals 620-626 are exemplary and the actual shape ofthe energy received can be different in practice. In some examples, thechoice of which reflection to use for the time-of-flight calculation forforce sensing can be a function of the thickness of the material and thefrequency of the transmitted wave.

In some examples, rather than using time-of-flight measurements todetermine thickness of the deformable material, other methods can beused. For example, transducer 602 can stimulate the deformable material604 with ultrasonic waves at a resonant frequency. As the deformablematerial 604 changes in thickness due to applied force, the resonantfrequency can shift. The change in resonant frequency can be measured todetermine the applied force. Using a resonant frequency can result inbetter signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) performance and better accuracy ascompared with the time-of-flight method.

As described above with reference to FIGS. 3A-3B, in some examplesacoustic touch and force sensing can both be performed. In someexamples, the two operations can be time-multiplexed. Transducers 502A-D(e.g., one of which can correspond to transducer 314) can generatetransmit waveforms and receive reflections to determine alocation/position of touch on a surface (e.g., cover glass 312) asdescribed with reference to timing diagram 560 during an acoustic touchsensing phase. Transducer 602 (e.g., corresponding to transducer 314)can generate a transmit waveform and receive a reflection to determinean amount of force applied to the surface (e.g., cover glass 312) asdescribed with reference to timing diagram 640 during an acoustic forcesensing phase.

In some examples, the acoustic touch and force sensing can be performedusing transmit waveforms generated at the same time. FIG. 7 illustratesa timing diagram 700 for acoustic touch and force sensing according toexamples of the disclosure. Signal 702 can correspond to a transmitwaveform generated by a transducer (e.g., transducer 314) tosimultaneously propagate in deformable material 316 and in cover glass312. Signal 704 can correspond to a reflection (e.g., a firstreflection) from the boundary between deformable material 316 and rigidmaterial 318. Signal 706 can correspond to a reflection from an object(e.g., a finger) on the surface of cover glass 312. Signal 708 cancorrespond to a reflection from the opposite edge of cover glass 312.Based on the timing of signal 704, the acoustic touch and force sensingcircuitry can measure a time-of-flight across the deformable material.Based on the timing of signals 706 and/or 708, the acoustic touch andforce sensing circuitry can measure the time-of-flight along the surfaceof cover glass 312 to an object (or an edge when no object is contactingthe cover glass). The time-of-flight measurements for touch can berepeated for each transducer 502A-D (e.g., four times) to determine thelocation/position of the object. The time-of-flight measurements canoptionally be repeated (e.g., for each of transducers 502A-D) to measureforce applied to the cover glass 312. In some examples, an average forcemeasurement can be determined from repeated force measurements. In someexamples, the repeated measurements can indicate relative force appliedto different edges of the cover glass. In some examples, themeasurements and different edges of the cover glass can be combined todetermine an applied force.

Performing acoustic touch and force sensing using one or more sharedtransducers can provide for both touch and force information with oneset of ultrasonic transducers (e.g., 502A-D) and one sensing circuit(e.g., acoustic touch and/or force sensing circuit 400). As a result,the touch and force sensing systems can potentially be reduced in size,in complexity and in power consumption.

Performance of ultrasonic touch and force sensing using ultrasonic wavestransmitted into deformable material 316 and cover glass 312 at the sametime can depend, in some examples, on the separation between thetransmitted ultrasonic waves for touch and for force. For example, FIG.7 illustrates signals 704 and 706 corresponding to force and touchreflections, respectively, that can be well separated in time (e.g.,such that the force reflections arrive in a dead zone for touchreflections). In practice, an integration of acoustic touch and forcesensing can subject each measurement (touch/force) to noise/interferencefrom the other measurement (force/touch).

In some examples, interference between ultrasonic waves in thedeformable material and the cover glass can be reduced or eliminatedbased on the design of the deformable material. For example, thedeformable material can be selected to have an ultrasonic attenuationproperty above a threshold, such that the signal in the deformablematerial can be damped before reflections in the cover glass arereceived. In some examples, the thickness of the deformable material canbe selected to allow for one or more reflections through the deformablematerial to be received before reflections from the cover glass. In someexamples, the reflection (e.g., first, second, nth) through thedeformable material can be selected such that the reflection of interestoccurs between reflections from the cover glass can be received. In someexamples, an absorbent material can be coupled to the deformablematerial to further dampen ringing of ultrasonic signals in thedeformable material. In some examples (e.g., when force and touchultrasonic waves do not overlap in time), more than one of thetransducers (and in some cases all of the transducers) can transmit awave and receive the reflections at the same time to measure the forceapplied. Then, individual transducers can transmit waves and receivereflected waves sequentially for touch detection.

Processing data from acoustic touch and/or force detection scans can beperformed by different processing circuits of an acoustic touch and/orforce sensing system. For example, as described above with respect toFIG. 4, an electronic device can include an acoustic touch and forcesensing circuit 400 and a processor SoC 430 (e.g., including a hostprocessor 432 and an auxiliary processor/sub-processor 434). Asdescribed in detail below, processing of touch and/or force data can beperformed by one or more of these processors/circuits, according tovarious examples. For example, according to the various examples, theprocessing of touch and/or force data can be performed by the acoustictouch and force sensing circuit, by the processor SoC, or partially bythe acoustic touch and force sensing circuit and partially by theprocessor SoC. The description of the data processing below firstaddresses touch data processing and then addresses force dataprocessing.

As described below in more detail, in some examples, raw touch sensingdata can be transmitted to a processor SoC to be processed by one ormore processors of processor SoC (e.g., host processor 432 and anauxiliary processor/sub-processor 434). In some examples, the touchsensing data can be processed in part by analog processing circuits(e.g., as described above with reference to FIG. 4) and/or digitalprocessing circuits (e.g., averaging of ADC outputs) of an acoustictouch (and/or force) sensing circuit. The partially processed touchsensing data can be transmitted to the processor SoC for furtherprocessing. In some examples, an acoustic touch (and/or force) sensingcircuit can process the touch sensing data and supply the processor SoCwith high level touch information (e.g., the centroid of the touch). Theacoustic touch and force sensing circuit can be referred to as anacoustic touch sensing circuit to simplify the description of touch dataprocessing among the various processors and circuits below.

In some examples, an auxiliary processor (e.g., auxiliary processor 434)can be a low power processor that can remain active even when a hostprocessor (e.g., host processor 432) can be idle and/or powered down. Anacoustic touch sensing circuit (e.g., corresponding to acoustic touchand force sensing circuit 400) can perform acoustic touch sensing scansand generate acoustic touch data. The acoustic touch data can betransferred to the auxiliary processor for processing according one ormore touch sensing algorithms. For example, in a low-power mode, theacoustic touch sensing circuit can perform a low power touch detectionscan. The low power touch detection scan can include receivingreflections from a barrier (e.g., surface edge) opposite a transducerfor one or more transducers (e.g., from one transducer rather than thefour illustrated in FIG. 5A). The acoustic touch data corresponding tothe received reflections from the barrier(s) can be transmitted to theauxiliary processor via a communication channel and processed by theauxiliary processor to determine the presence or absence of an objecttouching the sensing surface. Once an object is detected touching thesensing surface, the system can transition from the low-power mode to anactive mode, and the acoustic touch sensing circuit can perform anactive mode touch detection scan. Additionally or alternatively, in someexamples, a low power force detection scheme (e.g., performed using onetransducer) can be used in the low-power mode. The active mode touchdetection scan can include, for example, scanning the sensing surface asdescribed above with respect to FIG. 5A. The acoustic touch datacorresponding to the active mode touch detection scan can be transmittedto the auxiliary processor via a communication channel and processed bythe auxiliary processor to determine the location of the object. In someexamples, determining the location of the object can include determiningthe area and/or centroid of the object. The host processor can receivethe location of the object touching the surface from the auxiliaryprocessor and perform an action based thereon.

In some examples, the acoustic touch sensing circuit can perform someprocessing before sending acoustic touch data to the auxiliaryprocessor. For example, to reduce the requirements for the datacommunication channel between the acoustic touch sensing circuit and theauxiliary processor, the acoustic touch sensing circuit can include adigital signal processor which can average samples from the ADC output.Averaging the samples can compress the amount of acoustic touch data tobe communicated to the auxiliary processor. The averaging performed bythe digital signal processor can be controlled by control circuitry(e.g., acoustic scan control logic 422) in the acoustic touch sensingcircuit. In some examples, the transmit signal can be coded to allow foraveraging without a time penalty. Although averaging is described, inother examples, other forms of processing can be applied to the acoustictouch data before transferring the acoustic touch data.

In some examples, the data communication channel between the acoustictouch sensing circuit and the auxiliary processor can be a serial bus,such as a serial peripheral interface (SPI) bus. In addition, thecommunication channel can be bidirectional so information can also betransmitted from the auxiliary processor to the acoustic touch sensingcircuit (e.g., register information used for programming acoustic touchsensing circuit). Additionally, the acoustic touch sensing circuit canreceive one or more synchronization signals from the auxiliary processorconfigured to synchronize acoustic touch sensing scanning operations bythe acoustic touch sensing circuit. Additionally, the acoustic touchsensing circuit can generate an interrupt signal configured to providefor proper acoustic data transfer from the acoustic touch sensingcircuit to the auxiliary processor. In some examples, the detection andthe processing for the low power touch detection mode can be doneon-chip (e.g., by the acoustic touch sensing circuit). In theseexamples, interrupt signals can be used to indicate (e.g., to theauxiliary processor) when a finger is detected on the surface of thedevice.

In some examples, the acoustic touch sensing circuit can performacoustic touch sensing scans and generate acoustic touch data. Theacoustic touch data can be transferred to the auxiliary processor and/orthe host processor for processing according one or more touch sensingalgorithms. For example, in a low-power mode, the acoustic touch sensingcircuit can perform a low power detection scan as described herein. Theacoustic touch data can be transmitted to the auxiliary processor via acommunication channel and processed by the auxiliary processor todetermine the presence or absence of an object touching the sensingsurface. Once an object is detected touching the sensing surface, thesystem can transition from the low-power mode to an active mode, and theacoustic touch sensing circuit can perform an active mode detection scanas described herein. The acoustic touch data corresponding to the activemode detection scan can be transmitted to the host processor via ahigh-speed communication channel and processed by the host processor todetermine the location of the object. In some examples, the datatransfer via the high-speed communication channel can be done in a burstmode. In some examples, determining the location of the object caninclude determining the area and/or centroid of the object. The hostprocessor can perform an action based on the location.

In some examples, the high-speed communication channel can providesufficient bandwidth to transfer raw acoustic touch data to the hostprocessor, without requiring processing by the acoustic touch sensingcircuit. In some examples, the high-speed communication channel caninclude circuitry to serialize the acoustic touch data (e.g., aserializer) and transfer the serialized acoustic touch data using alow-voltage differential signal (LVDS) communication circuit. In someexamples, other I/O blocks can be utilized for the data transfer. Insome examples, the acoustic touch sensing circuit can perform someprocessing (e.g., averaging) before sending acoustic touch data to thehost processor. In some examples, the amount of data resulting from alow power detection scan can be relatively small (compared with anactive mode detection scan) such that the raw acoustic touch data can betransferred to the auxiliary processor without requiring processing bythe acoustic touch sensing circuit. In some examples, the acoustic touchsensing circuit can perform some processing (e.g., averaging) beforesending acoustic touch data to the host processor. The other aspects ofoperation (e.g., data transfer from the auxiliary processor to acoustictouch sensing circuit, synchronization signals and interrupt signals,etc.) can be the same as or similar to the description above. Althoughdescribed above as processing acoustic touch data from low powerdetection scans in the auxiliary processor and acoustic touch data fromactive mode detection scans in the host processor, it should beunderstood that in some examples, the host processor can performprocessing for both low power detection scans and active mode detectionscans.

In some examples, the acoustic touch sensing circuit can include anacoustic touch digital signal processor (DSP). In some examples, theacoustic touch DSP can be a separate chip coupled between the acoustictouch sensing circuit and the processor SoC. The acoustic touch sensingcircuit can perform acoustic touch sensing scans and generate acoustictouch data. The acoustic touch data can be transferred to the acoustictouch DSP for processing according one or more touch sensing algorithms.For example, in a low-power mode, the acoustic touch sensing circuit canperform a low power detection scan as described herein. The acoustictouch data can be transmitted to the acoustic touch DSP via acommunication channel and processed by the acoustic touch DSP todetermine the presence or absence of an object touching the sensingsurface. In some examples, the acoustic touch sensing circuit canprocess the acoustic touch data to determine the presence or absence ofthe object touching the surface. Once an object is detected touching thesensing surface, the system can transition from the low-power mode to anactive mode, and the acoustic touch sensing circuit can perform anactive mode detection scan as described herein. The acoustic touch datacorresponding to the active mode detection scan can be transmitted tothe acoustic touch DSP via a high-speed communication channel andprocessed by the acoustic touch DSP to determine the location of theobject. In some examples, determining the location of the object caninclude determining the area and/or centroid of the object. The locationcan be passed to the auxiliary processor and/or the host processor, andthe auxiliary processor and/or the host processor can perform an actionbased on the location.

In some examples, the high-speed communication channel can providesufficient bandwidth to transfer raw acoustic touch data to the acoustictouch DSP, without requiring processing by the acoustic touch sensingcircuit. In some examples, the high-speed communication channel caninclude circuitry to serialize the acoustic touch data (e.g., CMOSserializer) and transfer the serialized acoustic touch data using alow-voltage differential signal (LVDS) communication circuit. In someexamples, the acoustic touch sensing circuit can perform some processing(e.g., averaging) before sending acoustic touch data to the acoustictouch DSP. In some examples, the amount of data resulting from a lowpower detection scan can be relatively small (compared with an activemode detection scan) such that the raw acoustic touch data can betransferred to the acoustic touch DSP without requiring processing bythe acoustic touch sensing circuit. In some examples, the data from lowpower detection scans can also be transferred to the acoustic touch DSPvia the high-speed communication channel.

Data transfer from the auxiliary processor to the acoustic touch sensingcircuit, synchronization signals and interrupt signals can be the sameas or similar to the description above, except that, in some examples,the various signals and data can pass through the acoustic touch DSP.

In some examples, the acoustic touch sensing circuit can performacoustic touch sensing scans and generate acoustic touch data. Theacoustic touch data (e.g., for a low-power detection scan) can beprocessed by the acoustic touch sensing circuit to determine thepresence or absence of the object touching the surface. Once an objectis detected touching the sensing surface, the system can transition fromthe low-power mode to an active mode, and the acoustic touch sensingcircuit can perform an active mode detection scan as described herein.The acoustic touch data corresponding to the active mode detection scancan be processed by the acoustic touch sensing circuit to determine thelocation of the object. In some examples, determining the location ofthe object can include determining the area and/or centroid of theobject. The presence and/or location of the object can be passed to theauxiliary processor and/or the host processor, and the auxiliaryprocessor and/or the host processor can perform an action based on thepresence and/or location of the object.

In some examples, the amount of post-processing information (e.g.,centroid) can be relatively small (compared with raw acoustic touchdata) such that the information can be transferred to the auxiliaryprocessor and/or the host processor via a serial communication bus(e.g., SPI), without a high-speed data channel.

Data transfer from the auxiliary processor to acoustic touch sensingcircuit, synchronization signals and interrupt signals can be the sameas or similar to the description above. In some examples, separate datacommunication channels can be provided between the acoustic touchsensing circuit and each of the auxiliary processor and the hostprocessor. In some examples, the data communication channel can be ashared bus (e.g., shared SPI bus) between the acoustic touch sensingcircuit and each of the auxiliary processor and the host processor.

The acoustic touch sensing circuit, as described herein, can be powereddown or put in a low power state when not in use. In some examples, theacoustic touch sensing circuit can be on only during acoustic touchdetection scans (e.g., during Tx and Rx operations). In some examples,the acoustic touch sensing circuit can be on in a low power state at alltime (e.g., running at a low frame rate, performing a low powerdetection scan), and can transition into an active mode state when anobject is detected.

In a similar manner, processing force data can be performed by differentprocessing circuits of an acoustic touch and/or force sensing system.For example, as described above with respect to FIG. 4, an electronicdevice can include an acoustic touch and force sensing circuit 400 and aprocessor SoC 430 (e.g., including a host processor 432 and an auxiliaryprocessor/sub-processor 434). In some examples, force detection circuit424 can duplicate (or reuse) the touch sensing circuitry of FIG. 4 tocollect and/or processes force data. In some examples, raw force sensingdata can be transmitted by a force detection circuit 424 to a processorSoC to be processed by one or more processors of processor SoC (e.g.,host processor 432 and an auxiliary processor/sub-processor 434). Insome examples, the force sensing data can be processed in part by analogprocessing circuits and/or digital processing circuits of an acousticforce (and/or touch) sensing circuit. The partially processed forcesensing data can be transmitted to the processor SoC for furtherprocessing. In some examples, an acoustic force (and/or touch) sensingcircuit can process the force sensing data and supply the processor SoCwith force information (e.g., an amount of applied force). Additionally,a low power force detection scan can be used in addition to or in placeof a low power touch detection scan described above (e.g., to cause thedevice to exit a low power or idle mode). The low power force detectionscan can include, for example, determining force applied to the surfaceusing fewer than all transducers (e.g., one transducer).

In some examples, force detection circuit 424 can be simplified withrespect to touch detection circuitry to reduce power and hardwarerequirements. FIGS. 8A-C illustrate exemplary circuits for forcedetection according to examples of the disclosure. It should beunderstood that the circuits of FIGS. 8A-C are exemplary, and othercircuits can be used for force sensing. Additionally, although thecircuits of FIGS. 8A-C can be single-ended circuits, partially or fullydifferential circuits can also be used. FIG. 8A illustrates an exemplaryforce detection circuit 800 according to examples of the disclosure.Force detection circuit 800 can include a gate (or switch) 801, aprogrammable gain amplifier (PGA) 802, an analog comparator 804, atime-to-digital signal converter 806 and, optionally, a digitalcomparator 808. A gate timing signal can be used to activate gate 801(e.g., close a switch) between the input from the transducer used tomeasure force and the PGA 802. The gate timing signal can also be usedto start timing by time-to-digital signal converter 806. The output ofPGA 802 can be input into comparator 804, which can be used for findinga reliable transition edge of the receive signal. When the comparatortransitions, the timing by the time-to-digital signal converter 806stops. The digital output (e.g., a digitized number) of thetime-to-digital signal converter 806, which can be proportional to theapplied force, can be sent from the acoustic force (and/or touch)sensing circuit to a processor. In some examples, an optional digitalcomparator 808 can be used to transmit force reading exceeding athreshold amount of force. In some examples, a time window can beselected and all or some of the threshold crossing time stamps can besent from the acoustic force (and/or touch) sensing circuit to theprocessor SoC, and the time stamps can be used to detect thetime-of-flight change (and therefore the force applied). In someexamples, the digitized data for a given time window can be sampled attwo different times (one time without and one time with the forceapplied) and the correlation between the two time-of-flight measurementscan be used to determine the change in time-of-flight (and thereforeapplied force).

FIG. 8B illustrates an exemplary force detection circuit 810 accordingto examples of the disclosure. Force detection circuit 810 can include agate (or switch) 811, a PGA 812, a differential-to-single-endedconverter circuit 812, an analog comparator 814, a logical AND gate 816,a digital counter 818 and a clock 820. A gate timing signal can be usedto activate gate 811 (e.g., close a switch) between the input from thetransducer used to measure force and the differential-to-single-endedconverter circuit 812. The single-ended output of thedifferential-to-single-ended converter circuit 812 can be provided toPGA 812. The gate timing signal can also be output to logical AND gate816. When the gate timing signal and the output of analog comparator 814can both be high, counter 818 can start timing based on a clock signalfrom clock 820. The output of PGA 812 can be input into comparator 814,which can be used for finding a reliable transition edge of the receivesignal. When the comparator transitions, the timing by the counter 818can be stopped. The digital output (e.g., a digitized number) fromcounter 818, which can be proportional to the applied force, can be sentfrom the acoustic force (and/or touch) sensing circuit to a processor.

It should be understood exemplary force detection circuits 800 and 810can be reconfigured to output the threshold crossing on a rising edge, afalling edge or both edges of the received signal. Force detectioncircuits 800 and 810 as illustrated in FIGS. 8A and 8B output the risingedge threshold crossings after each rising edge of the time gatingsignal. In some examples, threshold crossings can be detected on bothrising and falling edges of the input signal. FIG. 8C illustrates anexemplary force detection circuit 830 according to examples of thedisclosure. Force detection circuit 830 can include a gate (or switch)831, a PGA 832, an analog comparator 834, a logical inverter 836, n-bitD-Flip Flops 838 and 840, a clock 842 and a digital counter 844. A resetsignal can be used to reset D-Flip Flops 838 and 840. A time windowsignal can be used to activate gate 831 between the input from thetransducer used to measure force and PGA 832. The time window signal canalso enable counter 844 to start timing based on a clock signal fromclock 842. The output of PGA 832 can be input into comparator 834, whichcan be used for finding reliable transition edges of the receive signal.The output of comparator 834 can be used to clock D-Flip Flops 838 and840. D-Flip Flop 838 can be clocked with an inverted version of thecomparator output to detect the opposite edge. D-Flip Flops 838 and 840can receive the output of counter 844 as data inputs, and output thecount of counter 844 for a rising and falling edge transition,respectively. The digital outputs (e.g., digitized numbers) of D-FlipFlops 838 and 840, which can be proportional to the applied force, canbe sent from the acoustic force (and/or touch) sensing circuit to aprocessor.

As discussed above, in some examples, the force data can be sampled attwo different times (one time without and one time with the forceapplied) and the correlation between the two time-of-flight measurementscan be used to determine the change in time-of-flight (and thereforeapplied force). FIG. 9 illustrates an exemplary configuration of anacoustic touch and/or force sensing circuit according to examples of thedisclosure. The circuitry illustrated in FIG. 9 can correspond to thecorresponding circuitry illustrated in FIG. 4, implemented to detectforce, for example. Unlike FIG. 4, the acoustic touch and/or forcesensing circuitry of FIG. 9 can include a correlator 950. Correlator 950can be a digital correlator configured to correlate force data for ano-applied force case (e.g., baseline) with measured force data that mayinclude an applied force. The correlation can indicate a change in thetime of flight (or resonance) in the deformable material, and therebyindicate an applied force.

As described above, acoustic touch and force sensing scans performed byan acoustic touch and force sensing circuit can involve stimulating andsensing one or more transducers. FIGS. 10A-10E illustrate exemplaryintegration of an acoustic touch and force sensing circuit and/or one ormore processors (e.g., processor SoC) with transducers mechanically andacoustically coupled to a surface (e.g., glass, plastic, metal, etc.)and/or a deformable material (e.g., silicone, rubber, etc.) according toexamples of the disclosure. FIG. 10A illustrates an exemplary acoustictouch and force sensing system configuration 1000 using four acoustictransducers 1004A-D mounted along (or otherwise coupled to) four edgesof a surface 1002 (e.g., underside of a cover glass). Transducers1004A-D can be configured to generate acoustic waves (e.g., shearhorizontal waves) and to receive the reflected acoustic waves.Additionally, the acoustic transducers 1004A-D can also be mounted over(or otherwise coupled to) a deformable material (e.g., gasket) disposedbetween the surface 1002 and a rigid material (e.g., a portion of thehousing). One or more acoustic touch and force sensing circuits can beincluded. For example, FIG. 10A illustrates a first acoustic touch andforce sensing circuit 1006 positioned proximate to neighboring edges oftransducers 1004C and 1004D. Likewise, a second acoustic touch and forcesensing circuit 1006′ can be positioned proximate to neighboring edgesof transducers 1004A and 1004B. Placement of acoustic touch and forcesensing circuits as illustrated can reduce routing between transducers1004A-D and the respective acoustic touch and force sensing circuits.Processor SoC 1008 can be coupled to the one or more acoustic touch andforce sensing circuits to perform various processing as describedherein. In some examples, some or all of the drive circuitry (Txcircuitry) and/or some or all of the receive circuitry (Rx circuitry) ofthe touch and force sensing circuit can be implemented on differentsilicon chips.

In some examples, transducers 1004A-D can be coupled to one or moreacoustic touch and force sensing circuits via a flex circuit (e.g.,flexible printed circuit board). FIG. 10B illustrates a view 1010 ofexemplary acoustic touch and force sensing system configuration 1000along view AA of FIG. 10A. As illustrated in FIG. 10B, transducer 1004Dcan be coupled to surface 1002 by a bonding between a bonding materiallayer 1014 on an underside of surface 1002 and a first signal metallayer 1012A on one side of transducer 1004D. In some examples, thebonding material layer 1014 can be electrically conductive (e.g., ametal layer). In some examples, the bonding material layer 1014 can beelectrically non-conductive. The first signal metal layer 1012A on oneside of transducer 1004D and a second signal metal layer 1012B on asecond side of transducer 1004D can provide two terminals of transducer1004D to which stimulation signals can be applied and reflections can bereceived. The first signal metal layer 1012A can wrap around from oneside of transducer 1004D to an opposite side to enable bonding of bothsignal metal layers of the transducer 1004D on one side of transducer1004D. In FIG. 10B, acoustic touch and force sensing circuit 1006 can becoupled to a flex circuit 1016 and the flex circuit can be respectivelybonded to signal metal layers 1012A and 1012B of transducer 1004D (e.g.,via bonds 1018). Likewise, transducer 1004C can be coupled to surface1002 (e.g., via bond metal layer/first signal metal layer bonding) andto acoustic touch and force sensing circuit 1006 by bonding a flexcircuit to signal metal layers on the transducer side opposite thesurface. Similarly, transducers 1004A and 1004B can be coupled tosurface 1002 and second acoustic touch and force sensing circuit 1006′.

Transducers 1004A-D can also be coupled to deformable material 1003. Forexample, deformable material 1003 can be a gasket disposed between thesurface 1002 and a rigid material 1007. When assembled, deformablematerial 1003 (e.g., gasket) can form a water-tight seal between surface1002 (e.g., cover glass) and a rigid material 1007 (e.g., housing).Transducers 1004A-D in contact with deformable material 1003 can applystimulation signals to and receive reflections from the deformablematerial 1007. In a similar manner, transducers 1004A-D can also becoupled to deformable material 1003 as illustrated in FIGS. 10C-E.

In some examples, transducers 1004A-D can be coupled to acoustic touchand force sensing circuits via an interposer (e.g., rigid printedcircuit board). FIG. 10C illustrates a view 1020 of exemplary acoustictouch and force sensing system configuration 1000 along view AA.Transducers 1004C and 1004D can be coupled to surface 1002 asillustrated in and described with respect to FIG. 10B. Rather thancoupling acoustic touch and force sensing circuit 1006 to a flex circuit1016 and bonding the flex circuit to signal metal layers 1012A and 1012Bof transducer 1004D, however, in FIG. 10C, an interposer 1022 can bebonded to signal metal layers 1012A and 1012B of transducer 1004D (e.g.,via bonds 1024). Acoustic touch and force sensing circuit 1006 can bebonded or otherwise coupled to interposer 1022. Similarly, transducers1004A and 1004B can be coupled to surface 1002 and second acoustic touchand force sensing circuit 1006′. In some examples, transducers 1004A-Dcan be directly bonded to acoustic touch and force sensing circuits.FIG. 10D illustrates a view 1030 of exemplary acoustic touch and forcesensing system configuration 1000 along view AA. Transducers 1004C and1004D can be coupled to surface 1002 as illustrated in and describedwith respect to FIG. 10B. Rather than coupling acoustic touch and forcesensing circuit 1006 to a flex circuit or interposer and bonding theflex circuit/interposer to signal metal layers 1012A and 1012B oftransducer 1004D, however, in FIG. 10D, an acoustic touch and forcesensing circuit 1006 can be bonded to signal metal layers 1012A and1012B of transducer 1004D (e.g., via bonds 1032). Similarly, transducers1004A and B can be coupled to surface 1002 and second acoustic touch andforce sensing circuit 1006′.

In FIGS. 10B-D, signal metal layer 1012A was routed away from surface1002 and both signal metal layers 1012A and 1012A were bonded to anacoustic touch and force sensing circuit via bonding on a side oftransducer 1004D separate from surface 1002 (e.g., via flex circuit,interposer or direct bond). In some examples, the acoustic touch andforce sensing circuits can be bonded to routing on surface 1002. FIG.10E illustrates a view 1040 of exemplary acoustic touch and forcesensing system configuration 1000 along view AA. Unlike in FIG. 10A, forexample, transducer 1004D can be coupled to surface 1002 via twoseparate portions of metal bond layer. A first portion of the metal bondlayer 1042A can be bonded to a first signal metal layer 1044A (using ametal to metal conductive bonding), and a second portion of the metalbond layer 1042B can be bonded to a second signal metal layer 1044B(which can optionally be wrapped around transducer 1004D). Although notshown, the first and second portions of the metal bond layer 1042A and1042B can be routed along the underside of surface 1002 and bondconnections can be made with a flex circuit or interposer including anacoustic touch and force sensing circuit, or directly to the acoustictouch and force sensing circuit. Likewise, transducer 1004C can becoupled to surface 1002 and acoustic touch and force sensing circuit1006 via routing on the surface. Similarly, transducers 1004A and 1004Bcan be coupled to surface 1002 and coupled to second acoustic touch andforce sensing circuit 1006′ via routing on the surface. It should benoted, that one advantage of the integration illustrated in FIG. 10Eover the integrations of FIGS. 10B-D, can be that the deformablematerial 1003 can have a more uniform shape around the perimeter of thedevice. In contrast, as illustrated in FIGS. 10B-D, the deformablematerial may include a cutout or notch or have different properties(e.g., different thickness) where the acoustic touch and force sensingcircuit (and/or flex circuit or interposer) is located. Alternatively,the transducer can be made thinner in the electrical connection area toaccommodate for the electrical connection in FIGS. 10B-D without a notchor cutout. In some examples, pitch-catch force sensing can be used. Insuch examples, a receive transducer can be added between the deformablematerial 1003 and rigid material 1007 (e.g., as illustrated in FIG. 6B.)

It should be understood that the exemplary integration of an acoustictouch and force sensing circuit, transducers and a surface describedherein are exemplary and many other techniques can be used. Transducerscan be attached to the edge of the cover glass (e.g., on a side of thecover glass) or underneath the cover glass. In some examples, thetransducers can be integrated in a notch in the cover glass. In all ofthe integrations of the transducers and the cover glass, the attachmentand the bonding should be done in a way that can allow for the desiredacoustic wave to be generated and propagated in the cover glass (or ontop of the cover glass). In some examples, matching or backing materialscan be added to the transducers to increase their performance as well asthe matching to the target surface medium (e.g., cover glass). Likewise,matching or backing materials can be added to the transducersinterfacing with deformable material 1003 to increase performance offorce detection as well as the matching to the deformable materialmedium. In some examples, transducers for touch detection can beimplemented on the edges of the cover glass and the transducers forforce detection can be implemented on the corners of the cover glass.

As described above, in some examples, the transmitter and receiverfunctions can be separated such that the transmission of acoustic energyat 302 and the receiving of acoustic energy at 304 may not occur at thesame transducer. In some examples, the transmit transducer and thereceive transducer can be made of different materials to maximize thetransmit and receive efficiencies, respectively. In some examples,having separate transmit and receive transducers can allow for highvoltage transmit circuitry and low voltage receive circuitry to beseparated (for touch and/or force sensing circuits). FIG. 11 illustratesan exemplary configuration of an acoustic touch and force sensingcircuit 1100 according to examples of the disclosure. The configurationof FIG. 11, like the configuration of FIG. 4, can include an acoustictouch and force sensing circuit 1100 and a processor SoC 1130. Asdescribed above, processor SoC 1130 can include a host processor 1132(e.g., corresponding to processor 432) and an auxiliary processor 1134(corresponding to auxiliary processor 434). Likewise, acoustic touch andforce sensing circuit 1100 can include transmitter 1102 (correspondingto transmitter 402), transmit switching circuitry 1104A (correspondingto demultiplexers of switching circuitry 404), receive switchingcircuitry 1104B (e.g., corresponding to multiplexers of switchingcircuitry 404), an amplifier 1110 (e.g., corresponding to amplifier410), gain and offset correction circuit 1112 (e.g., corresponding togain and offset correction circuit 412), demodulation circuit, envelopedetection circuit, and/or filter 1114-1116 (e.g., corresponding todemodulation circuit 414, envelope detection circuit 415, and/or filter416), ADC 1118 (e.g., corresponding to ADC 418) and I/O circuit 1120(e.g., corresponding to I/O circuit 420). Acoustic touch and forcesensing circuit 1100 can also include a force detection circuit 1124(e.g., corresponding to force detection circuit 424). The operation ofthese components can be similar to that described above with respect toFIG. 4, and is omitted here for brevity. Unlike FIG. 4, which includestransducers 406 performing both transmit and receive operations, theconfiguration illustrated in FIG. 11 can include transducers 1106Aoperating as transmitters and separate transducers 1106B operating asreceivers. Transducers 1106A and 1106B can co-located at locations wheretransmit and receive transducers are previously described. For example,transducer 502A can be replaced by a first transducer configured totransmit and a second transducer configured to receive.

It is to be understood that the configuration of FIG. 11 is not limitedto the components and configuration of FIG. 11, but can include other oradditional components in multiple configurations according to variousexamples. Additionally, some or all of the components illustrated inFIG. 11 can be included in a single circuit, or can be divided amongmultiple circuits while remaining within the scope of the examples ofthe disclosure. In some examples, some or all of the transmit circuitry1102 and transmit switching circuitry 1104A can be implemented in onechip and some or all of the receive circuitry 408 and receive switchingcircuitry 404B can be implemented in a second chip. The first chipincluding transmit circuitry can receive and/or generate via a voltageboosting circuit a high voltage supply for stimulating the surface. Thesecond chip including the receive circuitry can operate withoutreceiving or generating a high voltage supply. In some examples, morethan two chips can be used, and each chip can accommodate a portion ofthe transmit circuitry and/or receive circuitry.

FIGS. 12A-12E illustrate exemplary integration of an acoustic touch andforce sensing circuit and/or one or more processors (e.g., processorSoC) with groups of transducers (e.g., one transmitting and onereceiving) mechanically and acoustically coupled to a surface (e.g.,glass, plastic, metal, etc.) and/or a deformable material (e.g.,silicone, rubber, etc.) according to examples of the disclosure. FIG.12A illustrates an exemplary acoustic touch and force sensing systemconfiguration 1200 using eight acoustic transducers, including fourtransmit transducers 1204A-D and four receive transducers 1205A-Dmounted along (or otherwise coupled to) four edges of a surface 1202(e.g., cover glass). Transmit transducers 1204A-D can be configured togenerate acoustic waves (e.g., shear horizontal waves) and receivetransducers 1205A-D can be configured to receive the reflected acousticwaves. Additionally, the acoustic transducers 1204A-D and 1205A-D canalso be mounted over (or otherwise coupled to) a deformable material(e.g., gasket) disposed between the surface 1002 and a rigid material(e.g., a portion of the housing). One or more acoustic touch and forcesensing circuits can be included. For example, FIG. 12A illustrates afirst acoustic touch and force sensing circuit 1206 positioned proximateto neighboring edges of transmit transducers 1204C-D and receivetransducers 1205C-D. Likewise, a second acoustic touch and force sensingcircuit 1206′ can be positioned proximate to neighboring edges oftransmit transducers 1204A-B and receive transducers 1205A-B. Placementof acoustic touch and force sensing circuits as illustrated can reducerouting between transducers and corresponding acoustic touch and forcesensing circuits. Processor SoC 1208 can be coupled to the one or moreacoustic touch and force sensing circuits.

In some examples, transducers 1204A-D/1205A-D can be coupled to acoustictouch and force sensing circuits via a flex circuit (e.g., flexibleprinted circuit board). FIG. 12B illustrates a view 1210 of exemplaryacoustic touch and force sensing system configuration 1200 along view AAof FIG. 12A. As illustrated in FIG. 12B, receiver transducer 1205D canbe coupled to surface 1202 by a bonding between a bond material layer1214 on an underside of surface 1202 and a first signal metal layer1212A on one side of receive transducer 1205D. In some examples, thebonding material layer 1214 can be electrically conductive (e.g., ametal layer). In some examples, the bonding material layer 1214 can beelectrically non-conductive. The first signal metal layer 1212A on oneside of receive transducer 1205D and a second signal metal layer 1212Bon a second side of receive transducer 1205D can provide two terminalsof receive transducer 1205D from which reflections can be received. Thefirst signal metal layer 1212A can wrap around from one side of receivetransducer 1205D to an opposite side to enable bonding of both signalmetal layers of receive transducer 1205D on one side of receivetransducer 1205D. In FIG. 12B, acoustic touch and force sensing circuit1206 can be coupled to a flex circuit 1216 and the flex circuit can berespectively bonded to signal metal layers 1212A and 1212B of receivetransducer 1205D (e.g., via bonds 1218). Similarly transmit circuit1204D (not shown) can be coupled to surface 1202 and can provide twoterminals to which stimulation signals can be applied. The flex circuitcan be bonded to respective signal metal layers of transmit transducer1204D. Likewise, transmit transducer 1204C and receive transducer 1204Dcan be coupled to surface 1202 (e.g., via bond metal layer/first signalmental layer bonding) and to acoustic touch and force sensing circuit1206 by bonding the flex circuit to signal metal layers on the side ofthe transducer opposite the surface. Similarly, transmit transducers1204A-B and receive transducers 1205A-B can be coupled to surface 1202and second acoustic touch and force sensing circuit 1206′.

Transducers 1204A-D and 1205A-D can also be coupled to deformablematerial 1203. For example, deformable material 1203 can be a gasketdisposed between the surface 1202 and a rigid material 1207. Whenassembled, deformable material 1203 (e.g., gasket) can form awater-tight seal between surface 1202 (e.g., cover glass) and a rigidmaterial 1207 (e.g., housing). Transducers 1204A-D and 1205A-D incontact with deformable material 1203 can apply stimulation signals toand receive reflections from the deformable material 1207. In a similarmanner, transducers 1204A-D and/or 1205A-D can also be coupled todeformable material 1203 as illustrated in FIGS. 12C-E.

In some examples, transmit transducers 1204A-D and receive transducers1205A-D can be coupled to acoustic touch and force sensing circuits viaan interposer (e.g., rigid printed circuit board). FIG. 12C illustratesa view 1220 of exemplary acoustic touch and force sensing systemconfiguration 1200 along view AA. Transmit transducers 1204C-D andreceive transducers 1205C-D can be coupled to surface 1202 asillustrated in and described with respect to FIG. 12B. Rather thancoupling acoustic touch and force sensing circuit 1206 to a flex circuit1216 and bonding the flex circuit to signal metal layers 1212A and 1212Bof receive transducer 1205D, however, in FIG. 12C, an interposer 1222can be bonded to signal metal layers 1212A and 1212B of receivetransducer 1205D (e.g., via bonds 1224). Acoustic touch and forcesensing circuit 1206 can be bonded or otherwise coupled to interposer1222. Similarly, the remaining transducers (transmit and receive) can becoupled to surface 1202 and the first or second acoustic touch and forcesensing circuits 1206 and 1206′.

In some examples, transmit transducers 1204A-D and receive transducers1205A-D can be directly bonded to acoustic touch and force sensingcircuits. FIG. 12D illustrates a view 1230 of exemplary acoustic touchand force sensing system configuration 1200 along view AA. Transmittransducers 1204C-D and receive transducers 1205C-D can be coupled tosurface 1202 as illustrated in and described with respect to FIG. 12B.Rather than coupling acoustic touch and force sensing circuit 1206 to aflex circuit or interposer and bonding the flex circuit/interposer tosignal metal layers 1212A and 1212B of receive transducer 1205D,however, in FIG. 12D, an acoustic touch and force sensing circuit 1206can be bonded to signal metal layers 1212A and 1212B of receivetransducer 1205D (e.g., via bonds 1232). Similarly, the remainingtransducers (transmit and receive) can be coupled to surface 1202 andthe first or second acoustic touch and force sensing circuits 1206 and1206′.

In FIGS. 12B-D, signal metal layer 1212A was routed away from surface1202 and both signal metal layers 1212A and 1212B were bonded to anacoustic touch and force sensing circuit via bonding on a side ofreceive transducer 1205D separate from surface 1202 (e.g., via flexcircuit, interposer or direct bond). In some examples, the acoustictouch and force sensing circuits can be bonded to routing on surface1202 instead, similar to the description above with respect to FIG. 10E,for example.

Although FIG. 12A illustrates transmit transducers 1204A-D as beingside-by-side with receive transducers 1205A-D, in some examples,transmit transducers 1204A-D and receiver transducers 1205A-D can bestacked on one another. FIG. 12E illustrates a view 1240 of exemplaryacoustic touch and force sensing system configuration 1200 along viewAA. As illustrated in FIG. 12E, receiver transducer 1205D can be coupledto surface 1202 by a bonding between a bond metal layer 1242 on anunderside of surface 1202 and a first signal metal layer 1246A on oneside of receive transducer 1205D. Transmit transducer 1204D can becoupled to receive transducer 1205D via a common second signal metallayer 1244 on a second side of receive transducer 1205D. A first metallayer 1246B can be deposited on the second side of transmit transducer1204D. First signal metal layer 1246A and common second signal metallayer 1244 can provide two terminals of receive transducer 1205D fromwhich reflections can be received. First signal metal layer 1246B andcommon second signal metal layer 1244 can provide two terminals oftransmit transducer 1204D to which transmit waves can be applied. Insome examples, the common signal metal layer can be a common ground forthe transmit and receive transducers. In some examples, the metalconnections for the transmit and receive transducers can be separatedfrom each other and differential or single ended transmit and receivecircuitry can be used. Although not shown, routing of signal metallayers 1244, 1246A and 1246B can be placed so that acoustic touch andforce sensing circuit 1206 can be coupled to routing on surface 1202 orexposed surfaces of transmit transducer 1204D and/or receive transducer1205D to enable direct or indirect bonding of the acoustic touch andforce sensing circuit to routing on surface 1202 or on transducers1204D/1205D. In some examples, bond metal 1242 can be bonded to 1246Asignal metal (using a metal to metal conductive bonding). It should benoted, that one advantage of the integration illustrated in FIG. 12Eover the integrations of FIGS. 12B-D, can be that the deformablematerial 1003 can have a more uniform shape around the perimeter of thedevice. In contrast, as illustrated in FIGS. 12B-D, the deformablematerial may include a cutout or have different properties (e.g.,different thickness) where the acoustic touch and force sensing circuit(and/or flex circuit or interposer) is located.

FIGS. 13-19 illustrate various configurations for integrating touch andforce sensing functionality within an electronic device. Each of theFIGS. 13-19 includes a cover glass that can correspond to cover glass312 above, a display stackup, a housing that can correspond to rigidmaterial 318 above, a transducer that can correspond to transducer 314above, and a deformable material (e.g., that can be included in a forcesensing stackup) that can correspond to deformable material 316 above.In some examples, the display stackup can include a stackup for touchsensing circuitry (e.g., capacitive touch sensing). Each of thedifferent configurations can be used to create a device that has bothtouch sensing and force sensing capability, as will be described in moredetail below.

FIG. 13 illustrates a first exemplary configuration for integratingtouch sensing and force sensing circuitry with housing 1304 and coverglass 1302 of an electronic device. In some examples, transducer 1308can be coupled to a side of the cover glass 1302. In some examples,cover glass 1302 can be disposed over a display stackup 1306. In someexamples, the display stackup 1306 can include a touch sensor stackup,e.g., a capacitive touch sensor stackup. In some examples, thetransducer 1308 can have a height in the y-axis dimension that can beclose to the thickness in the y-axis dimension of the cover glass 1302.In some examples, this can allow the transducer 1308 to produce auniform acoustic wave throughout the thickness of the cover glass 1302.In some examples, by placing the transducer 1308 on the side of thecover glass, stimulating the transducer with a voltage or current canproduce a horizontal shear wave, Rayleigh wave, Lamb wave, Love wave,Stoneley wave, or surface acoustic wave in the cover glass 1302travelling along the x-axis direction. In some examples, more than onetransducer 1304 can be disposed around the perimeter of the cover glass1302 to provide touch measurements having two-dimensional coordinates onthe cover glass surface (e.g., as described with respect to transducers502A-502D above). The transducer 1308 can be disposed on a backingmaterial 1310 that can in turn provide mechanical coupling between thetransducer and the housing 1304. In some examples, an encapsulant 1316can be provided to hide the transducer 1308 and backing material 1310from being visible to a user as well as providing additional mechanicalstability. In some examples, the encapsulant 1316 can be a part of thehousing 1304 and in some examples the encapsulant can be a separatematerial from the housing (e.g., glass, zircon, titanium, sapphire,etc.). In some examples, a force sensor stackup 1312 can be positionedbehind the cover glass 1302, and can operate to detect force asdescribed in at least FIGS. 3 and 6-7 above.

FIG. 14 illustrates a second exemplary configuration for integratingtouch sensing and force sensing circuitry with housing 1404 and coverglass 1402 of an electronic device. FIG. 14 illustrates a similarconfiguration to FIG. 13 showing the transducer 1408 coupled to a sideof the cover glass 1402. In some examples, the transducer 1408 can havea height in the y-axis dimension that can be close to the thickness inthe y-axis dimension of the cover glass 1402. In some examples, byplacing the transducer 1408 on the side of the cover glass, stimulatingthe transducer with a voltage or current can produce a horizontal shearwave in the cover glass 1402 travelling along the x-axis direction. Insome examples, more than one transducer 1404 can be disposed around theperimeter of the cover glass 1402 to provide touch measurements havingtwo-dimensional coordinates on the cover glass surface (e.g., asdescribed with respect to transducers 502A-502D above). In someexamples, each transducer 1408 can produce a shear wave oriented in adifferent direction. In addition to the encapsulant 1416 (which cancorrespond to the encapsulant 1316 above) a second encapsulant can beused to provide a mechanical base for the cover glass 1402, transducer1408 and backing material 1410. Inclusion of the second encapsulant 1418can simplify the structure of the housing 1404 by requiring one lessnotch in the housing. In some examples, the force sensor stackup 1412can be supported directly by the housing 1404, and can operate to detectforce as described in at least FIGS. 3 and 6-7 above.

FIG. 15 illustrates a third exemplary configuration for integratingtouch sensing and force sensing circuitry with housing 1504 and curvedcover glass 1502 of an electronic device. Unlike the configurations ofFIGS. 13 and 14 above, the orientation of the transducer 1508 does notnecessarily need to match with the direction of acoustic wavepropagation (e.g., along the x-axis). In the illustrated configuration,the transducer 1508 can be attached to an edge of the curved cover glass1502 and backing material 1510 can be disposed between the transducer1580 and the housing 1504. In some examples, the transducer 1508 andbacking material 1510 can be positioned within a notch or groove in thehousing 1504 as illustrated in FIG. 15. In some examples, the acousticenergy produced by the transducer 1508 can be guided along the curvededge 1502′ of the cover glass and can continue to propagate along thesurface to perform touch detection as described above with regards toFIGS. 2-5. In some examples, a gradual curvature of the cover glass 1502can be used to guide the wave along the curved edge 1502′ of the coverglass toward the flat surface. Force sensor stackup 1512 can besupported by the housing 1504, and a standoff 1514 can be coupled to thecover glass 1502 to transfer a force applied to the cover glass into theforce sensor stackup as described in at least FIGS. 3 and 6-7 above. Inparticular, because the force sensor stackup 1512 can be located beneaththe curved edge 1502′ of the cover glass 1502, the standoff 1514 can beincluded to translate the force onto a flat force sensor stackup.

FIG. 16 illustrates a variation of the third configuration of FIG. 15with the addition of an encapsulant material 1616 (which can correspondto encapsulant materials 1316, 1416, and 1418 above) that can be used tomechanically secure the transducer 1608 and backing 1610 to the housing1604 as well as visually obscure the transducer assembly from a user ofthe electronic device. Similar to FIG. 10, force sensor stackup 1612 canbe located beneath the curved edge 1602′ of cover glass 1602 and astandoff 1614 can be coupled to the cover glass 1602 to transfer a forceapplied to the cover glass into the force sensor stackup.

FIG. 17 illustrates a fourth exemplary configuration for integratingtouch sensing and force sensing circuitry with housing 1704 and coverglass 1702. Transducer 1708 can be disposed on a backing material 1710within a cavity formed behind the cover glass 1702. An acoustic wavegenerated by stimulating the transducer 1708 can approximate thestimulation directly at the side of the cover glass 1702 as illustratedin FIGS. 13 and 14 while maintaining a curved edge 1702′ of cover glasssurface as illustrated in FIGS. 15 and 16. In other words, thetransducer 1708 can be used to generate a wave that travels along theflat surface of the cover glass 1702 in the x-axis direction directly,without relying on guiding the wave through the curved edge 1702′ of thecover glass. Reflection of the transmitted acoustic energy can be usedfor touch detection as described above (e.g., with respect to FIGS.2-5). Force sensing stackup 1712 can be disposed between the cover glass1702 and the housing 1704 to perform force sensing as described in atleast FIGS. 3 and 6-7 above.

FIG. 18 illustrates a fifth exemplary configuration for integratingtouch sensing and force sensing circuitry with housing 1804 and coverglass 1802. In some examples, transducer 1808 and backing material 1810can be disposed on a back side of the cover glass 1802. In someexamples, acoustic energy from the transducer 1808 can begin propagatingalong the y-axis direction, can reflect from the curved edge 1802′ ofthe cover glass 1802, and can travel along the x-axis direction as inthe examples described above. In some examples, the amount of curvatureof the curved edge 1802′ can determine the dispersion of the reflectedacoustic energy. In some examples, this dispersion can lead todispersion in the measured time of flight for reflected acoustic energyand can have an effect on touch detection as described in FIGS. 2-5above. Force sensor stackup 1812 can be coupled to the housing 1804 toperform force sensing as described in FIGS. 6-7 above.

FIGS. 19A and 19B illustrate exemplary configurations for integratingtouch sensing and force sensing circuitry with shared elements withhousing 1904 and cover glass 1902 of an electronic device. In someexamples, the illustrations of FIGS. 19A and 19B can be implementationsfor integrating the touch sensing and force sensing as described inFIGS. 2-7 above, with particular reference to FIGS. 3B, 5A, 6A, and 6B.FIGS. 19A and 19B differ in the shape of the cover glass 1902. In FIG.19A, the illustrated cover glass 1902 can have a flat back side, and thetransducer 1908 can be disposed directly to the back side of the coverglass. In FIG. 19B, the illustrated cover glass 1902 can have adownwardly extending portion at edges of the cover glass, and thetransducer 1908 can be disposed on the downwardly extending portion ofthe cover glass. In other examples, the transducer 1908 can be attachedto a curved cover glass 1902 such as those illustrated in FIGS. 15-17above. Similar to the configuration described for FIG. 18, acousticenergy from the transducer 1808 can begin propagating along the y-axisdirection, can reflect from the bezel portion 1902′ of the cover glass1902, and can travel along the x-axis direction. In the illustratedexamples of FIGS. 19A and 19B, the bezel 1902′ is drawn as a perfectlyformed 45 degree angle, which can produce a 90 degree change inorientation of the acoustic energy from the reflection at the bezel. Itshould be understood that the same principles apply to the curved coverglass 1802 of FIG. 18, and that acceptable performance can be obtainedin the presence of a non-flat bezel 1902′, such as a curved edge 1802′above. The illustrated flat bezel 1902′ could be used to provide adesirable reflection, but can result in a sharp edge that could beunpleasant for a user to touch. In some examples, a portion of the bezel1902′ can be flat, while sharp edges of the bezel can be avoided byrounding of the edges. In some examples, the length (e.g., x-axisdimension) of the transducer 1908 can be made equal to or nearly equalto the thickness (e.g., y-axis dimension) of the cover glass 1902 sothat a uniform acoustic wave 1920 can be transmitted throughout thethickness of the cover glass material. Using the principles describedabove in FIGS. 2-5, the transducer 1908 can be used to detect the touchposition of object 1922 on the cover glass. As should be understood,FIGS. 19A and 19B illustrate how the configuration of FIG. 3B can beintegrated into an electronic device cover glass for performing touchsensing. In addition, by placing a deformable material 1910 behind thetransducer (e.g., as a backing material), the force sensing described inFIGS. 3-7 above can simultaneously be performed using the sametransducer 1908. For example, as compared to FIG. 6A, the cover glass1902, transducer 1908, deformable material 1910, and housing 1904 cancorrespond to cover glass 601, transducer 602, deformable material 604,and rigid material 606 respectively. Also, although not shown, a secondtransducer can be included between the deformable material 1910 and thehousing 1904 to match the configuration illustrated in FIG. 6B.

Therefore, according to the above, some examples of the disclosure aredirected to An electronic device, comprising: a cover surface; adeformable material disposed between the cover surface and a housing ofthe electronic device; an acoustic transducer coupled to the coversurface and the deformable material and configured to produce a firstacoustic wave in the cover surface and a second acoustic wave in thedeformable material. Additionally or alternatively to one or more of theexamples disclosed above, in some examples, the deformable material andcover surface are further configured such that the first acoustic waveis capable of being propagated in a first direction and the secondacoustic wave is capable of being propagated in a second direction,different from the first direction. Additionally or alternatively to oneor more of the examples disclosed above, in some examples, the firstacoustic wave is incident upon a bezel portion of the cover glass in athird direction and reflected by the bezel portion of the cover glass inthe first direction, different from the third direction. Additionally oralternatively to one or more of the examples disclosed above, in someexamples, the first and third directions are opposite to one another.Additionally or alternatively to one or more of the examples disclosedabove, in some examples, the first and third direction are orthogonal.Additionally or alternatively to one or more of the examples disclosedabove, in some examples, the deformable material is included in a gasketpositioned between the housing and a first side of the cover surface.

Some examples of the disclosure are directed to a touch and forcesensitive device. The device can comprise: a surface, a deformablematerial disposed between the surface and a rigid material, such thatforce on the surface causes a deformation of the deformable material, aplurality of transducers coupled to the surface and the deformablematerial, and processing circuitry coupled to the plurality oftransducers. The processing circuitry can be capable of: stimulating theplurality of transducers to transmit ultrasonic waves to the surface andthe deformable material, receiving, from the plurality of transducers,reflected ultrasonic waves from the surface and the deformable material,determining a location of a contact by an object on the surface basedthe reflected ultrasonic waves propagating in the surface received atthe plurality of transducers, and determining an applied force by thecontact on the surface based on one or more reflected ultrasonic wavespropagating in the deformable material received from one or more of theplurality of transducers. Additionally or alternatively to one or moreof the examples disclosed above, in some examples, the surface cancomprise an external surface of the device. Additionally oralternatively to one or more of the examples disclosed above, in someexamples, the rigid material can comprise a portion of a housing of thedevice. Additionally or alternatively to one or more of the examplesdisclosed above, in some examples, the deformable material can form agasket between the portion of the housing and the external surface ofthe device. Additionally or alternatively to one or more of the examplesdisclosed above, in some examples, the plurality of transducers cancomprise at least four transducers bonded to the surface. Each of thefour transducers can be disposed proximate to a different one of fourrespective edges of the surface and can be disposed over a portion ofthe gasket proximate to a respective edge of the housing of the device.Additionally or alternatively to one or more of the examples disclosedabove, in some examples, the processing circuitry can comprise one ormore acoustic touch and force sensing circuits. The acoustic touch andforce sensing circuit can be coupled to the plurality of transducers viadirect bonding between the plurality of transducers and the one or moreacoustic touch and force sensing circuits, via bonding between theplurality of transducers and a flexible circuit board coupled to the oneor more acoustic touch and force sensing circuits, or via bondingbetween the plurality of transducers and a rigid circuit board coupledto the one or more acoustic touch and force sensing circuits.Additionally or alternatively to one or more of the examples disclosedabove, in some examples, the device can further comprise routingdeposited the surface proximate to the plurality of transducers. Theprocessing circuitry can comprise one or more acoustic touch and forcesensing circuits. The one or more acoustic touch and force sensingcircuits can be coupled to the plurality of transducers via coupling ofthe one or more acoustic touch and force sensing circuits to the routingdeposited on the surface. Additionally or alternatively to one or moreof the examples disclosed above, in some examples, stimulating theplurality of transducers to transmit ultrasonic waves to the surface andthe deformable material and receiving, from the plurality oftransducers, reflected ultrasonic waves from the surface and thedeformable material can comprise: stimulating a first transducer of theplurality of transducers to transmit a first ultrasonic wave to thesurface and receiving a first reflected ultrasonic wave from the firsttransducer from the surface in response to the transmitted firstultrasonic wave; stimulating a second transducer of the plurality oftransducers to transmit a second ultrasonic wave to the surface andreceiving a second reflected ultrasonic wave from the second transducerfrom the surface in response to the transmitted second ultrasonic wave;stimulating a third transducer of the plurality of transducers totransmit a third ultrasonic wave to the surface and receiving a thirdreflected ultrasonic wave from the third transducer from the surface inresponse to the transmitted third ultrasonic wave; and stimulating afourth transducer of the plurality of transducers to transmit a fourthultrasonic wave to the surface and receiving a fourth reflectedultrasonic wave from the fourth transducer from the surface in responseto the transmitted fourth ultrasonic wave. Additionally or alternativelyto one or more of the examples disclosed above, in some examples, thefirst ultrasonic wave, second ultrasonic wave, third ultrasonic wave andfourth ultrasonic wave can be transmitted in series to reduceinterference between the plurality of transducers. Additionally oralternatively to one or more of the examples disclosed above, in someexamples, determining the location of the contact by the object on thesurface can be based the first reflected ultrasonic wave, the secondreflected ultrasonic wave, the third reflected ultrasonic wave and thefourth reflected ultrasonic wave. Additionally or alternatively to oneor more of the examples disclosed above, in some examples, stimulatingthe plurality of transducers to transmit ultrasonic waves to the surfaceand the deformable material and receiving, from the plurality oftransducers, reflected ultrasonic waves from the surface and thedeformable material can further comprise: stimulating the firsttransducer of the plurality of transducers to transmit a fifthultrasonic wave to the deformable material and receiving a fifthreflected ultrasonic wave from the first transducer from the deformablematerial in response to the transmitted fifth ultrasonic wave;stimulating the second transducer of the plurality of transducers totransmit a sixth ultrasonic wave to the deformable material andreceiving a sixth reflected ultrasonic wave from the second transducerfrom the deformable material in response to the transmitted sixthultrasonic wave; stimulating the third transducer of the plurality oftransducers to transmit a seventh ultrasonic wave to the deformablematerial and receiving a seventh reflected ultrasonic wave from thethird transducer from the deformable material in response to thetransmitted seventh ultrasonic wave; and stimulating the fourthtransducer of the plurality of transducers to transmit an eighthultrasonic wave to the deformable material and receiving an eighthreflected ultrasonic wave from the fourth transducer from the deformablematerial in response to the transmitted eighth ultrasonic wave.Additionally or alternatively to one or more of the examples disclosedabove, in some examples, the fifth ultrasonic wave, the sixth ultrasonicwave, the seventh ultrasonic wave and the eighth ultrasonic wave can betransmitted in series to reduce interference between the plurality oftransducers. Additionally or alternatively to one or more of theexamples disclosed above, in some examples, determining the appliedforce by the contact on the surface can be based the fifth reflectedultrasonic wave, the sixth reflected ultrasonic wave, the seventhreflected ultrasonic wave and the eighth reflected ultrasonic wave.Additionally or alternatively to one or more of the examples disclosedabove, in some examples, determining the applied force by the contact onthe surface can comprise averaging time of flight measurementscorresponding to the the fifth reflected ultrasonic wave, sixthreflected ultrasonic wave, seventh reflected ultrasonic wave and eighthreflected ultrasonic wave. Additionally or alternatively to one or moreof the examples disclosed above, in some examples, stimulating theplurality of transducers to transmit ultrasonic waves to the surface andthe deformable material and receiving, from the plurality oftransducers, reflected ultrasonic waves from the surface and thedeformable material can comprise: stimulating a first transducer of theplurality of transducers to simultaneously transmit a first ultrasonicwave to the surface and to the deformable material; receiving a firstreflected ultrasonic wave from the surface from the first transducer inresponse to the first ultrasonic wave transmitted to the surface and afirst reflected ultrasonic wave from the deformable material from thefirst transducer in response to the first ultrasonic wave transmitted tothe deformable material; stimulating a second transducer of theplurality of transducers to simultaneously transmit a second ultrasonicwave to the surface and to the deformable material; receiving a secondreflected ultrasonic wave from the surface from the second transducer inresponse to the second ultrasonic wave transmitted to the surface and asecond reflected ultrasonic wave from the deformable material from thesecond transducer in response to the second ultrasonic wave transmittedto the deformable material; stimulating a third transducer of theplurality of transducers to simultaneously transmit a third ultrasonicwave to the surface and to the deformable material; receiving a thirdreflected ultrasonic wave from the surface from the third transducer inresponse to the third ultrasonic wave transmitted to the surface and athird reflected ultrasonic wave from the deformable material from thethird transducer in response to the third ultrasonic wave transmitted tothe deformable material; and stimulating a fourth transducer of theplurality of transducers to simultaneously transmit a fourth ultrasonicwave to the surface and to the deformable material; receiving a fourthreflected ultrasonic wave from the surface from the fourth transducer inresponse to the fourth ultrasonic wave transmitted to the surface and afourth reflected ultrasonic wave from the deformable material from thefourth transducer in response to the fourth ultrasonic wave transmittedto the deformable material. Additionally or alternatively to one or moreof the examples disclosed above, in some examples, the first ultrasonicwave, the second ultrasonic wave, the third ultrasonic wave and thefourth ultrasonic wave can be transmitted in series to reduceinterference between the plurality of transducers. Additionally oralternatively to one or more of the examples disclosed above, in someexamples, determining the location of the contact by the object on thesurface can be based the first reflected ultrasonic wave from thesurface, the second reflected ultrasonic wave from the surface, thethird reflected ultrasonic wave from the surface and the fourthreflected ultrasonic wave from the surface. Additionally oralternatively to one or more of the examples disclosed above, in someexamples, determining the applied force by the contact on the surfacecan be based the first reflected ultrasonic wave from the deformablematerial, the second reflected ultrasonic wave from the deformablematerial, the third reflected ultrasonic wave from the deformablematerial and the fourth reflected ultrasonic wave from the deformablematerial. Additionally or alternatively to one or more of the examplesdisclosed above, in some examples, the processing circuitry can comprisea force detection circuit. The force detection circuit can be configuredto use time gating to detect one or more transitions in a reflectedultrasonic wave to determine a time of arrival of the reflectedultrasonic wave. Additionally or alternatively to one or more of theexamples disclosed above, in some examples, the processing circuitry cancomprise one or more acoustic touch and force sensing circuits. Each ofthe one or more acoustic touch and force sensing circuits can comprisean acoustic touch sensing circuit implemented on a first integratedcircuit and an acoustic force sensing circuit implemented on a secondintegrated circuit, separate from the first integrated circuit.Additionally or alternatively to one or more of the examples disclosedabove, in some examples, the processing circuitry can comprise one ormore acoustic touch and force sensing circuits. Each of the one or moreacoustic touch and force sensing circuits can comprise an acoustictransmit circuit and an acoustic receive circuit. The acoustic transmitcircuit can be implemented on a first integrated circuit and theacoustic receive circuit can be implemented on a second integratedcircuit, separate from the first integrated circuit.

Some examples of the disclosure are directed to a non-transitorycomputer readable storage medium. The non-transitory computer readablestorage medium can store instructions, which when executed by a devicecomprising a surface, a deformable material, a plurality of acoustictransducers coupled to the surface and the deformable material, andprocessing circuitry, cause the processing circuitry to: for each of theplurality of acoustic transducers: simultaneously transmit an ultrasonicwave in the surface toward an opposite edge of the surface and transmitan ultrasonic wave through the deformable material; receive anultrasonic reflection from the deformable material in response to theultrasonic wave transmitted through the deformable material traversingthe thickness of the deformable material; receive an ultrasonicreflection from the surface; determine a first time-of-flight betweenthe ultrasonic wave transmitted through the deformable material and theultrasonic reflection from the deformable material; and determine asecond time-of-flight between the ultrasonic wave transmitted in thesurface and the ultrasonic reflection from the surface. The instructionscan further cause the processing circuitry to determine a position of anobject on the surface based on respective second time-of-flightmeasurements corresponding to the plurality of transducers; anddetermine an amount of applied force by the object on the surface basedon respective first time-of-flight measurements corresponding to theplurality of transducers.

Some examples of the disclosure are directed to a method for determininga position of an object on a surface and an amount of applied force bythe object on the surface. The method can comprise: for each of aplurality of acoustic transducers: transmitting an first ultrasonic wavein the surface toward an opposite edge of the surface; receiving a firstultrasonic reflection from the surface; and determining a firsttime-of-flight between the first ultrasonic wave transmitted in thesurface and the first ultrasonic reflection from the surface;determining the position of the object on the surface based onrespective first time-of-flight measurements corresponding to theplurality of transducers. The method can further comprise: for each of aplurality of acoustic transducers: transmitting a second ultrasonic wavethrough the deformable material; receiving a second ultrasonicreflection from the deformable material in response to the secondultrasonic wave transmitted through the deformable material traversingthe thickness of the deformable material; and determining a secondtime-of-flight between the second ultrasonic wave transmitted throughthe deformable material and the second ultrasonic reflection from thedeformable material. The method can further comprise determining theamount of applied force by the object on the surface based on respectivesecond time-of-flight measurements corresponding to the plurality oftransducers.

Some examples of the disclosure are directed to a touch and forcesensitive device. The device can comprise: a surface, a deformablematerial disposed between the surface and a rigid material, such thatforce on the surface causes a deformation of the deformable material,one or more transducers coupled to the surface and the deformablematerial and configured to transmit ultrasonic waves to and receiveultrasonic waves from the surface and the deformable material, and aprocessor. The processor can be capable of determining a location of acontact by an object on the surface based on ultrasonic wavespropagating in the surface and determining an applied force by thecontact on the surface based on ultrasonic waves propagating in thedeformable material. Additionally or alternatively to one or more of theexamples disclosed above, in some examples, the surface can comprise aglass or sapphire external surface of the device, the rigid material cancomprise a portion of a metal housing of the device, and the deformablematerial can form a gasket between the metal housing and the surface.Additionally or alternatively to one or more of the examples disclosedabove, in some examples, the one or more transducers can comprise atleast a first transducer coupled to the deformable material. The firsttransducer can be configured to transmit an ultrasonic wave through thethickness of the deformable material. Additionally or alternatively toone or more of the examples disclosed above, in some examples, the firsttransducer can also be configured to receive one or more ultrasonicreflections from a boundary between the deformable material and therigid material. Additionally or alternatively to one or more of theexamples disclosed above, in some examples, the one or more transducerscan comprise at least a second transducer coupled between the deformablematerial and the rigid material. The second transducer can be configuredto receive the ultrasonic wave transmitted through the thickness of thedeformable material. Additionally or alternatively to one or more of theexamples disclosed above, in some examples, the one or more transducerscan comprise at least one transducer configured to simultaneouslytransmit an ultrasonic wave in the surface and an ultrasonic wavethrough the deformable material. Additionally or alternatively to one ormore of the examples disclosed above, in some examples, the one or moretransducers can comprise four transducers. Each of the four transducerscan be disposed proximate to a respective edge of the surface.Additionally or alternatively to one or more of the examples disclosedabove, in some examples, the device can further comprise an ultrasonicabsorbent material coupled to the deformable material. The ultrasonicabsorbent material can be configured to dampen ultrasonic ringing in thedeformable material. Additionally or alternatively to one or more of theexamples disclosed above, in some examples, determining the location ofthe contact by the object on the surface can comprise: determining afirst time-of-flight of an ultrasonic wave propagating between a firstedge the surface and a first leading edge of the object proximate to thefirst edge, determining a second time-of-flight of an ultrasonic wavepropagating between a second edge the surface and a second leading edgeof the object proximate to the second edge, determining a thirdtime-of-flight of an ultrasonic wave propagating between a third edgethe surface and a third leading edge of the object proximate to thethird edge, and determining a fourth time-of-flight of an ultrasonicwave propagating between a fourth edge the surface and a fourth leadingedge of the object proximate to the fourth edge. Additionally oralternatively to one or more of the examples disclosed above, in someexamples, determining the applied force by the contact on the surfacecan comprise determining a time-of-flight of an ultrasonic wavepropagating from a first side of the deformable material and reflectingoff of a second side, opposite the first side, of the deformablematerial.

Some examples of the disclosure are directed to a method. The method cancomprise transmitting ultrasonic waves in a surface, receivingultrasonic reflections from the surface, transmitting ultrasonic wavesthrough a deformable material, receiving ultrasonic reflections from thedeformable material, determining a position of an object in contact withthe surface from the ultrasonic reflections received from the surface,and determining a force applied by the object in contact with thesurface from the ultrasonic reflections received from the deformablematerial. Additionally or alternatively to one or more of the examplesdisclosed above, in some examples, at least one of the ultrasonic wavestransmitted in the surface and at least one of the ultrasonic wavestransmitted in the deformable material are transmitted simultaneously.Additionally or alternatively to one or more of the examples disclosedabove, in some examples, the at least one of the ultrasonic wavestransmitted in the surface and the at least one of the ultrasonic wavestransmitted in the deformable material are transmitted by a commontransducer. Additionally or alternatively to one or more of the examplesdisclosed above, in some examples, the method can further comprisedetermining a time-of-flight through the deformable material based on atime difference between transmitting an ultrasonic wave through thedeformable material and receiving an ultrasonic reflection from thedeformable material. The force applied by the object can be determinedbased on the time-of-flight through the deformable material.Additionally or alternatively to one or more of the examples disclosedabove, in some examples, the ultrasonic reflection from the deformablematerial can result from the ultrasonic wave transmitted through thedeformable material reaching a boundary between the deformable materialand a rigid material. Additionally or alternatively to one or more ofthe examples disclosed above, in some examples, the ultrasonicreflection from the deformable material can be received before theultrasonic reflection from the surface. Additionally or alternatively toone or more of the examples disclosed above, in some examples, themethod can further comprise determining a time-of-flight in the surfacebased on a time difference between transmitting an ultrasonic wave inthe surface and receiving an ultrasonic reflection from the surfacecorresponding to the object in contact with the surface. Determining theposition of the object comprises determining a distance from an edge ofthe surface to a leading edge of the object proximate to the edge of thesurface can be based on the time-of-flight in the surface.

Some examples of the disclosure are directed to a non-transitorycomputer readable storage medium. The non-transitory computer readablestorage medium can store instructions, which when executed by a devicecomprising a surface, a plurality of acoustic transducers coupled toedges of the surface, an acoustic touch and force sensing circuit, andone or more processors, cause the acoustic touch and force sensingcircuit and the one or more processors to: for each of the plurality ofacoustic transducers: simultaneously transmit an ultrasonic wave in thesurface toward an opposite edge of the surface and transmit anultrasonic wave through a deformable material; receive an ultrasonicreflection from the deformable material in response to the ultrasonicwave transmitted through the deformable material traversing thethickness of the deformable material; receive an ultrasonic reflectionfrom the surface; determine a first time-of-flight between theultrasonic wave transmitted through the deformable material and theultrasonic reflection from the deformable material; and determine asecond time-of-flight between the ultrasonic wave transmitted in thesurface and the ultrasonic reflection from the surface. The instructionscan further cause the acoustic touch and force sensing circuit and theone or more processors to determine a position of an object on thesurface based on respective second time-of-flight measurementscorresponding to the plurality of transducers and determine an amount ofapplied force by the object on the surface based on respective firsttime-of-flight measurements corresponding to the plurality oftransducers. Additionally or alternatively to one or more of theexamples disclosed above, in some examples, the ultrasonic wavetransmitted in the surface and the ultrasonic wave transmitted throughthe deformable material can comprise shear waves. Additionally oralternatively to one or more of the examples disclosed above, in someexamples, the ultrasonic reflection from the deformable material can bereceived before the ultrasonic reflection from the surface.

Although examples of this disclosure have been fully described withreference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be noted that variouschanges and modifications will become apparent to those skilled in theart. Such changes and modifications are to be understood as beingincluded within the scope of examples of this disclosure as defined bythe appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A touch and force sensitive device, comprising: asurface; a deformable material disposed between the surface and a rigidmaterial, such that an applied force by a contact on the surface by anobject causes a deformation of the deformable material; a plurality oftransducers coupled to the surface and the deformable materialconfigured to transmit ultrasonic waves to the surface and to thedeformable material and to receive reflected ultrasonic waves from thesurface and the deformable material; and processing circuitry coupled tothe plurality of transducers and configured to: stimulate the pluralityof transducers to transmit the ultrasonic waves; receive the reflectedultrasonic waves; determine a location of the contact on the surfacebased on one or more of the reflected ultrasonic waves propagating inthe surface and received at one or more of the plurality of transducers;and determine the applied force by the contact on the surface based onone or more reflected ultrasonic waves propagating in the deformablematerial and received at one or more of the plurality of transducers. 2.The device of claim 1, wherein: the surface comprises an externalsurface of the device, the rigid material comprises a portion of ahousing of the device, and the deformable material forms a gasketbetween the portion of the housing and the external surface of thedevice.
 3. The device of claim 2, wherein the plurality of transducerscomprises at least four transducers bonded to the surface, wherein eachof the four transducers is disposed proximate to a different one of fourrespective edges of the surface and disposed over a portion of thegasket proximate to a respective edge of the housing of the device. 4.The device of claim 3, wherein the processing circuitry comprises one ormore acoustic touch and force sensing circuits, the one or more acoustictouch and force sensing circuits coupled to the plurality of transducersvia direct bonding between the plurality of transducers and the one ormore acoustic touch and force sensing circuits, via bonding between theplurality of transducers and a flexible circuit board coupled to the oneor more acoustic touch and force sensing circuits, or via bondingbetween the plurality of transducers and a rigid circuit board coupledto the one or more acoustic touch and force sensing circuits.
 5. Thedevice of claim 3, further comprising: routing deposited on the surfaceproximate to the plurality of transducers; wherein the processingcircuitry comprises one or more acoustic touch and force sensingcircuits; and wherein the one or more acoustic touch and force sensingcircuits are coupled to the plurality of transducers via coupling of theone or more acoustic touch and force sensing circuits to the routingdeposited on the surface.
 6. The device of claim 1, wherein stimulatingthe plurality of transducers and receiving the reflected ultrasonicwaves comprises: stimulating a first transducer of the plurality oftransducers to transmit a first ultrasonic wave to the surface andreceiving a first reflected ultrasonic wave at the first transducer fromthe surface in response to the transmitted first ultrasonic wave;stimulating a second transducer of the plurality of transducers totransmit a second ultrasonic wave to the surface and receiving a secondreflected ultrasonic wave at the second transducer from the surface inresponse to the transmitted second ultrasonic wave; stimulating a thirdtransducer of the plurality of transducers to transmit a thirdultrasonic wave to the surface and receiving a third reflectedultrasonic wave at the third transducer from the surface in response tothe transmitted third ultrasonic wave; and stimulating a fourthtransducer of the plurality of transducers to transmit a fourthultrasonic wave to the surface and receiving a fourth reflectedultrasonic wave at the fourth transducer from the surface in response tothe transmitted fourth ultrasonic wave.
 7. The device of claim 6,wherein the first ultrasonic wave, second ultrasonic wave, thirdultrasonic wave, and fourth ultrasonic wave are transmitted in series toreduce interference between the plurality of transducers.
 8. The deviceof claim 6, wherein determining the location of the contact on thesurface is based on the first reflected ultrasonic wave, the secondreflected ultrasonic wave, the third reflected ultrasonic wave, and thefourth reflected ultrasonic wave.
 9. The device of claim 6, whereinstimulating the plurality of transducers and receiving the reflectedultrasonic waves further comprises: stimulating the first transducer ofthe plurality of transducers to transmit a fifth ultrasonic wave to thedeformable material and receiving a fifth reflected ultrasonic wave atthe first transducer from the deformable material in response to thetransmitted fifth ultrasonic wave; stimulating the second transducer ofthe plurality of transducers to transmit a sixth ultrasonic wave to thedeformable material and receiving a sixth reflected ultrasonic wave atthe second transducer from the deformable material in response to thetransmitted sixth ultrasonic wave; stimulating the third transducer ofthe plurality of transducers to transmit a seventh ultrasonic wave tothe deformable material and receiving a seventh reflected ultrasonicwave at the third transducer from the deformable material in response tothe transmitted seventh ultrasonic wave; and stimulating the fourthtransducer of the plurality of transducers to transmit an eighthultrasonic wave to the deformable material and receiving an eighthreflected ultrasonic wave at the fourth transducer from the deformablematerial in response to the transmitted eighth ultrasonic wave.
 10. Thedevice of claim 9, wherein the fifth ultrasonic wave, the sixthultrasonic wave, the seventh ultrasonic wave, and the eighth ultrasonicwave are transmitted in series to reduce interference between theplurality of transducers.
 11. The device of claim 9, wherein determiningthe applied force by the contact on the surface is based on the fifthreflected ultrasonic wave, the sixth reflected ultrasonic wave, theseventh reflected ultrasonic wave, and the eighth reflected ultrasonicwave.
 12. The device of claim 11, wherein determining the applied forceby the contact on the surface comprises averaging time of flightmeasurements corresponding to the fifth reflected ultrasonic wave, sixthreflected ultrasonic wave, seventh reflected ultrasonic wave, and eighthreflected ultrasonic wave.
 13. The device of claim 1, whereinstimulating the plurality of transducers and receiving the reflectedultrasonic waves comprises: stimulating a first transducer of theplurality of transducers to simultaneously transmit a first ultrasonicwave to the surface and to the deformable material; receiving a firstreflected ultrasonic wave from the surface at the first transducer inresponse to the first ultrasonic wave transmitted to the surface and afirst reflected ultrasonic wave from the deformable material at thefirst transducer in response to the first ultrasonic wave transmitted tothe deformable material; stimulating a second transducer of theplurality of transducers to simultaneously transmit a second ultrasonicwave to the surface and to the deformable material; receiving a secondreflected ultrasonic wave from the surface at the second transducer inresponse to the second ultrasonic wave transmitted to the surface and asecond reflected ultrasonic wave from the deformable material at thesecond transducer in response to the second ultrasonic wave transmittedto the deformable material; stimulating a third transducer of theplurality of transducers to simultaneously transmit a third ultrasonicwave to the surface and to the deformable material; receiving a thirdreflected ultrasonic wave from the surface at the third transducer inresponse to the third ultrasonic wave transmitted to the surface and athird reflected ultrasonic wave from the deformable material at thethird transducer in response to the third ultrasonic wave transmitted tothe deformable material; and stimulating a fourth transducer of theplurality of transducers to simultaneously transmit a fourth ultrasonicwave to the surface and to the deformable material; receiving a fourthreflected ultrasonic wave from the surface at the fourth transducer inresponse to the fourth ultrasonic wave transmitted to the surface and afourth reflected ultrasonic wave from the deformable material at thefourth transducer in response to the fourth ultrasonic wave transmittedto the deformable material.
 14. The device of claim 13, wherein thefirst ultrasonic wave, the second ultrasonic wave, the third ultrasonicwave, and the fourth ultrasonic wave are transmitted in series to reduceinterference between the plurality of transducers.
 15. The device ofclaim 13, wherein determining the location of the contact on the surfacebased on the one or more of the reflected ultrasonic waves propagatingin the surface is based on the first reflected ultrasonic wave from thesurface, the second reflected ultrasonic wave from the surface, thethird reflected ultrasonic wave from the surface, and the fourthreflected ultrasonic wave from the surface; and wherein determining theapplied force by the contact on the surface based on the one or morereflected ultrasonic waves propagating in the deformable material isbased on the first reflected ultrasonic wave from the deformablematerial, the second reflected ultrasonic wave from the deformablematerial, the third reflected ultrasonic wave from the deformablematerial, and the fourth reflected ultrasonic wave from the deformablematerial.
 16. The device of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitrycomprises a force detection circuit, the force detection circuitconfigured to use time gating to detect one or more transitions in areflected ultrasonic wave of the one or more reflected ultrasonic wavesto determine a time of arrival of the reflected ultrasonic wave.
 17. Thedevice of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry comprises one ormore acoustic touch and force sensing circuits, each of the one or moreacoustic touch and force sensing circuits comprising an acoustic touchsensing circuit implemented on a first integrated circuit and anacoustic force sensing circuit implemented on a second integratedcircuit, separate from the first integrated circuit.
 18. The device ofclaim 1, wherein the processing circuitry comprises one or more acoustictouch and force sensing circuits, each of the one or more acoustic touchand force sensing circuits comprising an acoustic transmit circuit andan acoustic receive circuit, wherein the acoustic transmit circuit isimplemented on a first integrated circuit and the acoustic receivecircuit is implemented on a second integrated circuit, separate from thefirst integrated circuit.
 19. A non-transitory computer readable storagemedium storing instructions, which when executed by a device comprisinga surface, a deformable material, a plurality of acoustic transducerscoupled to the surface and the deformable material, and processingcircuitry, cause the processing circuitry to: for each of the pluralityof acoustic transducers: simultaneously transmit an ultrasonic wave inthe surface toward an opposite edge of the surface and transmit anultrasonic wave through the deformable material; receive an ultrasonicreflection from the deformable material in response to the ultrasonicwave transmitted through the deformable material traversing a thicknessof the deformable material; receive an ultrasonic reflection from thesurface; determine a first time-of-flight between the ultrasonic wavetransmitted through the deformable material and the ultrasonicreflection from the deformable material; and determine a secondtime-of-flight between the ultrasonic wave transmitted in the surfaceand the ultrasonic reflection from the surface; determine a location ofan object contacting the surface based on one or more respective secondtime-of-flight measurements corresponding to one or more of theplurality of transducers; and determine an amount of applied force bythe object on the surface based on one or more respective firsttime-of-flight measurements corresponding to one or more of theplurality of transducers.
 20. A method for determining a location of anobject contacting a surface and an amount of applied force by the objectcontacting the surface, the method comprising: for each of a pluralityof acoustic transducers: transmitting a first ultrasonic wave in thesurface toward an opposite edge of the surface; receiving a firstultrasonic reflection from the surface; and determining a firsttime-of-flight between the first ultrasonic wave transmitted in thesurface and the first ultrasonic reflection from the surface;determining the location of the object contacting the surface based onone or more respective first time-of-flight measurements correspondingto one or more of the plurality of transducers; for each of a pluralityof acoustic transducers: transmitting a second ultrasonic wave through adeformable material disposed between the surface and a rigid material;receiving a second ultrasonic reflection from the deformable material inresponse to the second ultrasonic wave transmitted through thedeformable material traversing a thickness of the deformable material;and determining a second time-of-flight between the second ultrasonicwave transmitted through the deformable material and the secondultrasonic reflection from the deformable material; and determining theamount of applied force by the object contacting the surface based onone or more respective second time-of-flight measurements correspondingto one or more of the plurality of transducers.